The Pack
by skamusic4
Summary: After Fang leaves, the Flock needs something new. The solution? Their wolf-human alter-egos, the Pack. There's more to it than any of them know, though. Sometimes, it takes a leap of faith to get where you need to be. IggyxOC,some Max/Fang action.
1. Chapter 1

_**The Pack**_

For a few weeks after Fang left, I'd been virtually catatonic and weepy. I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep, and mostly couldn't even get out of bed. And I'm not going to lie; I feel the same way now as I did then.

But stupid dumb idiot Fang had been a tiny, microscopic smidge right, in that the Flock _did_ need me. They certainly weren't worse off then I was, but they were a mess, too, even with my mom staying to help. So I'd pulled it together on the outside, and only allowed myself to cry when I was completely alone and out of everyone's hearing-range (or mind reading range).

It was a huge accomplishment.

I'd even mastered the art of hiding my lonely, heartbroken thoughts from Angel. Mostly, it was a matter of being so occupied that my mind didn't wander. It'd been several weeks and I hadn't slipped up yet. I was sure she was keeping an eye on me.

But enough about me. I'm not the reason I'm here. No, I'm here to tell you about our alter-egos, the Pack.

42 days. It had been 42 days since Fang left. Yes, I was counting the days. So? How else would I know when it had been twenty years? Not that I would even really wait twenty years. I was going to give him about six months before I went and kicked his sorry ass.

Anyway, I woke up on the 42nd day to the smell of cinnamon. I sauntered into the kitchen to find Iggy already up and working on breakfast. Cinnamon toast—yum.

"Morning Max," he mumbled, accustomed to the sound of my footsteps.

"Mornin' Ig. How come you're up so early?" His nose wrinkled a little.

"I couldn't sleep." Since Fang left, the whole Flock was a little more open with their emotions. I'm not saying we all wore our hearts on our sleeves, but we weren't afraid to tell each other how we were feeling.

"How come?"

"I had a nightmare last night," he answered solemnly. I was immediately concerned. We'd learned that Iggy had had a nightmare the night before Fang left. He'd explained how in it, the Flock was running, came to a cliff, and jumped off, unfurling our wings. But Fang had tucked his in and plummeted down. Now we were all wondering if it was an odd coincidence, or if it was a new power.

"What happened in it?" I asked. Iggy sighed.

"It was weird. We were running through some forest, and there were Erasers…but they were different. More streamline, agile…it was so odd. I don't know, but…it seemed like we were running _with_ them, not _from_ them."

I processed this as Iggy worked on breakfast. We knew that Erasers had been wiped out, but the thought of allied Erasers made me think of my half-brother, Ari. I got a stab of regret, remembering his death. Then another, remembering how I'd reunited with Fang shortly after. And one more when I remembered how it was then that he'd promised to never leave me again. Stupid, no good liar.

But something else was nagging at my mind. "Ig, if they were with us, then why was it a nightmare?" He glanced at me with wide blue, unseeing eyes.

"We were still running from _something_."

•••

Fangs POV

It freaking sucked. Day 42, and where did Fang stand? Crappy shelter, no flock, and no plan. At first, he'd had a plan, but it hadn't panned out the way he'd hoped. Or at all. So now he was stuck wallowing in his own self-pitty.

God, he missed her. It was all he could do not to jump up, spread his wings, and rush back to her. But that would contradict everything he'd done thus far. He'd be back where he started. And if he went back now, eventually he'd come up with another plan and have to leave again. He couldn't do that to Max.

As he lay there on his back, reminiscing, probably invisible, he heard light, graceful footsteps approaching him.

His first thought was, _Oh God, what if it's someone from the Flock_? And his second was, _Shit, what if it's not?_

Fang kept his sharp eyes locked on the entrance to the cave. He kept completely still, hoping to blend in with his surroundings. Breath held, teeth clenched, he braced himself…

When in ambled a short blonde guy, no older than 14.

•••

Ig explained his dream to the rest of the Flock aver breakfast. Now we were all on high alert as we cleaned the kitchen. We each had a job: Gazzy and Nudge cleared the table, Iggy and I did the dishes, and Angel was on lookout. We'd switch the lookout periodically throughout the day.

By noon, it was my turn to be on watch. I assumed my position in the chair by the window and…well…watched. It was times like this when my mind wanted to wander the most. But Angel was in the other room, so I made it a point to concentrate extremely hard on my job.

In fact, I was probably concentrating too hard on concentrating too hard. Because I was so concerned with guarding my thoughts, I almost missed the several figured that appeared on the horizon. _Almost_.

"Flock!" I called. They were gathered around me in an instant, depicting my tone of urgency. I nodded at the window. "I count five. They don't seem to be creeping, or armed, so they might not be threats, but be prepared for a fight regardless. I think we should meet them out there so that if this does get ugly it won't get dragged into the house." It was so weird, making a plan without my right-hand man here to second me. Or disagree, or whatever. It was the first one I'd really come up with since he'd left (not counting little things like running to the store etc.).

We got outside and stood against our house. Our wings were stretched out, and we stood tip to tip, taking up the whole length of the house. Our visitors saw us, but continued forward until they were in a line in front of us.

The girl in the middle seemed to be the leader, standing directly in front of me. She was the tallest, but still several inches shorter than me. She had light brown, almost reddish hair and chestnut colored eyes, and her hands were on her hips. Just like me.

The next tallest were two girls, one with tangly brown hair and intense green eyes, and one with smooth blonde, styled hair and hazel eyes. The one with the wild hair looked older, and the other one was wearing an unnecessary amount of makeup and accessories.

The other two were boys, one a little bigger than the other. The taller one had matted-down dark hair, a round face, and light, playful eyes. The other one had curly caramel colored hair and wide blue eyes. He was staring right at Angel who watched him curiously.

Oh, and one other thing: each had a pair of pointed dog ears perched on their heads, and various sized, shaped, and colored tailed peaking out from behind them.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

**AN: Just an FYI, in this story, Max never found Fang's documents from the last few pages of **_**Fang**_**. **

At first, Fang was like, oh, I could take him in a fight. But then he noticed the ears and the tail, and was instantly suspicious. An Eraser? Nah, he wasn't burly enough. Plus, all the Erasers had been wiped out. And Erasers, when they _were_ around, looked a little more human when they weren't phased. For example, they didn't just walk around with their ears up and their tales hanging out.

Plus, this guy simply didn't look _mean_ enough to be an Eraser. But then, Fang knew looks could be deceiving. This guy could easily be his worst nightmare. So, he stayed still and hoped he'd leave.

The guy looked around for a second.

"I know someone's here," he muttered. What the hell, Fang thought, standing up leisurely. The wolf guy jumped a little, but then composed himself.

"Hey. Fang, right?" Fang was taken aback, but he didn't show it. He never showed it.

"Who are you?"

"My name's Damian. Wolf-human crossbreed. We're on the same side. My Pack hates the whitecoats and all them, too. We're actually a lot like your Flock."

"How do you know about the Flock?" He demanded.

"Well it's not like you're a big secret," Damian answered bored-ly, sitting down. Fang, curious, sat down as well. "But yeah, we did read up on you a little bit. Like a said, you're a lot like us. We get curious."

"Where's your…Pack?" Damian looked at the ground.

"I had to leave them, just like you." He's knows all about us, Fang realized.

"For the same reasons?" Damian met his gaze. The kid had strange, silvery eyes. Almost like a real wolf.

"Similar ones, yeah. And I'm sure I'm missing them as much as your missing yours." Fang was about to say, _you have no idea_, but then he thought about the conversation they'd just had, and thought that maybe he did.

•••

It was a standoff for a few minutes. But then, the girl I assumed was the leader threw me for a loop by smiling at me.

"Hi Max," she said in a strong, clear voice.

"Who are you and why are you here?" I demanded.

"They're good," Angel told me quietly. I still hadn't decided if I trusted her or not, so I waited for the girl to answer me.

"I'm AJ, and this is my Pack. We're really similar to your Flock. Well, not our bodies, clearly, but what we've been through. And our…personalities."

I had something to say to that, I really did, but I lost it when I realized that she was right. On other circumstances, I wouldn't let myself believe it, but as it stood (with the vision and what not), AJ kind of reminded me of…me. Not that that meant anything.

"How did you find us?"

"Well, we kind of stalked you. But we prefer the term _researched_." I kept my eyes locked on hers, hoping to look badass.

"And why's that?"

"Because our similarities were fascinating. We were going to come find you a few months ago, but then—" She stopped abruptly, as if someone had slapped duct tape across her lips. Her chestnut eyes went cold.

"But then one of our Pack left," the tiny curly haired boy finished for her. I wasn't sure what shocked me more—the part about one of their Pack leaving, or how much that kid reminded me of Angel.

"Sorry," AJ said weakly. "I wasn't sure how to put it." So the Pack person who left them was her lover. I could tell by the look in her eyes. It was like looking in a mirror.

"Anyway, we were wondering if you've seen him around. We thought he might come here."

"No, sorry," I responded, and I actually kind of meant it. Okay, so if it wasn't for Iggy's vision, my almost-trust in Angel, and my overwhelming curiosity, I would have been like, _nice meeting you, bye!_ But as it was, this was just too much to let go. So I locked eyes with AJ, and asked if they wanted to come in.

•••

The more Fang talked to Damian, the more dreamlike it became. Not just because Damian himself was like a blonde, wolfy version of Fang, but also because as he described his Pack, they were more than vaguely similar to the Flock. Especially Max and Damian's beloved AJ.

"She's so tough," Damian was saying, his silvery eyes far away. "Probably tougher than me, and I can take a lot. She just…Everything about her is so strong, but sometimes, around me, she'll let her guard down for a little bit. I might like that imperfection more than anything about her." All Fang could do was gawk. Was this guy a mind reader, like Angel?

"Same," he mumbled. It was quiet for a few minutes, each guy lost in his own world.

"So where's everyone else?" Damian wondered after a bit.

"The Flock? I thought—"

"No. Your army of mutants. I heard about it; that's one of the reasons I came to find you." So he came to find me, Fang mused. Interesting.

"I haven't heard from anyone yet. I guess everyone else is either locked up, doesn't care, or is too far in hiding to here about it." That had been Fang's initial plan: to get a group of mutants together to start a new Flock. Hadn't worked out, obviously.

"That sucks," Damian muttered. "We'll have to find another way."

"We?"

"Well yeah. You wanted an army, and I'm your first recruit. But we're going to need more soldiers before we do anything." Hmm. An army. That hadn't been exactly where Fang was headed, but now that he mentioned it, it wasn't a half bad idea. If they could pull it together, at least.

"So what do you think we should do for the time being?"

"Up to you, Boss." So what do you do when you're in a cave with your alter-ego, missing your loves, plotting to start an army of mutants?

Fang reached behind him, into his bad, and pulled out a small box. "Poker?"

That's right. You play cards with him.

•••

So, it turns out I wasn't the only one with a match.

The tangly haired girl, Dory, was Iggy with boobs and a tail. Except she wasn't blind. She was deaf. The other girl, Nellie, didn't look anything like Nudge, but based on her motor mouth and obsession with fashion, she could have been her sister.

The smallest boy's name was Gabriel. Now, I'm not a religious person, but I'm pretty sure that was the name of a famous _angel_. And guess who he acted too much like? That's right, everybody's favorite psycho child.

The other boy went by the name of Fuzz. He explained that that was because when he was a baby, he was covered in fuzzy fur. It fell off, but the name stuck. And according to AJ, he was just as much of a bomb wiz as Gazzy and Iggy. But his maturity level was more like Gazzy.

A few hours later, I found myself in the living room with AJ.

"So what does AJ stand for?" I murmured, just for something to say.

"Alden-Jane. Named after my mom and dad." My eyes widened a little.

"You knew your mom and dad?"

"No. Just their names. And I kind of liked the way their names sounded together, you know?" I smiled.

"That's cool." There was an awkward silence, but then AJ sucked in a breath.

"It's been 36 days, and I still want to cry whenever I think about him," She whispered. I could have just nodded and walked away, but that would have been stupid, considering she'd just voiced my thoughts.

"42 for me. Doesn't seem to get better with time."

"I'm sorry Max," she told me. I pretended not to be struck by her sincerity.

"I'm sorry AJ," I countered, just as strong.

"You thing they're together?"

"Honestly? I have no idea where Fang is or what he's doing. But considering they left 6 days apart…I can't decide whether it's a coincidence or not."

"I thing they're together."

"How come?"

"Well, he had Fang's mutant call up on our desktop for a few—"

"Fang's _what_?" AJ blinked.

"You didn't know? It's everywhere. It started in his blog. Don't you check it?" No, I hadn't checked his blog, even if it probably would have helped me, had I been looking for him. As a matter of fact, I'd kind of thought he'd discontinued that thing after he left.

"Do you have a computer?" AJ asked. I nodded and handed her the laptop. She pulled up Fang's blog, making my heart ache. She scrolled down a bit, then clicked on a link that said _mutant call_.

I was shaking on the inside as I waited for the page to load. When it did, everything fell into place.

_NEEDED: GEN77 AND/OR HUMAN-ANIMAL HYBRIDS _

_Yo, _

_Feel like you don't fit in? Do you know that you're different? Can you do things that no one else can? If you know what I'm talking about, the world is changing and I need your help. _

_Tell me your skills and send me your coordinates. I'll be in touch. _

_Fly on, Fang. _

"It all makes sense now," I whispered. AJ raised her eyebrows. I handed her the letter (ever-present in my pocket) and her eyes widened as she read it. I remembered _after_ I gave it to her all the emotional stuff Fang had written. Smooth, Max.

"He's trying to start a new Flock," I stated, trying to distract her.

"A mutant militia," she agreed.

"Because ours wasn't good enough." My voice was almost a whisper, my throat starting to swell.

"Or because he was confident that you'll be okay without him." That made the most sense, but how come he couldn't tell me?

"Because you wouldn't have let him go," Angel answered my thoughts, appearing suddenly behind me.

"Definitely," Gabriel murmured, also appearing suddenly. At first, I thought he was agreeing with Angel, but then I saw him looking at AJ and I internally moaned. God, please don't tell me he's a—

"Yup," Gabriel interrupted. "I'm just like Angel." Oh _beautiful_. Because we really needed _another_ psychic, mind-reading mutant around.

But then something else occurred to me as the others shuffled into the room. My eyes widened at the realization.

_Errrrrup!_ There was a never-ending belch, followed by hysterical giggling, as my nightmare came true.

I could almost, _maybe_ get used to having two Angels. But how could _anybody_ possibly deal with two Gazzys?


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3:

**AN: I just decided that both Max AND Iggy will get first person privileges in this FF, in case you were wondering. No? Okay. Here's chapter 3.**

The list of differences between AJ's Pack and my Flock was small but growing. For example, they obviously hadn't gone to finishing school, but their manners were exponentially better than ours. AJ offered to cook dinner, since we were letting them stay with us.

I was a little speculative at first, based on my own cooking expertise (or lack there of) and how we were so similar. But nobody else had a compelling urge to cook dinner for ten hungry mutants, so I let her at it.

Our current house was plenty big, and AJ and the Pack had come a long way. After contemplating for a while with the Flock, I decided to let them stay. But, of course, I warned them that I'd give them the boot if there was any funny business.

Dory, the lanky deaf girl (don't you just love my descriptions?), helped AJ prepare for dinner. I tried to guess what they were making, but gave up after a while and went to sit beside Iggy on the couch.

"Hey Max," he said, exercising his uncanny ability to know who was next to him without his eyes.

"Hey Ig. So what do you think of the Pack?"

"They seem cool enough to me." He thought for a minute, then added, "Dory seems cool." I smiled at the light flush in his cheeks. Give him an Eraser, or a Flyboy, or whatever has been sent to destroy us, and he'll kick its sorry ass any day. But give him a girl, and he's all red in the face. Typical raised-in-dog-crates behavior.

"You like her?"

"She seems cool," he repeated, a little quieter. I grinned again and flicked on the TV.

"There's a game on," I told him. "Red wings and—"

"I can't fucking see anything," he muttered, standing up and sulking to his room. I stared after him for a moment, surprised at the mood swing. I was going to go after him, but then decided against it. Maybe we were a little more open nowadays, but neither of us were the _let's talk about our feelings!_ type. If I went in there, it would be much too awkward for the both of us.

About fifteen minutes later, dinner was ready. I helped Dory set the table (were their manners rubbing off on me?) as the others filed into the room.

"Where's Iggy?" Dory asked, her voice coming out more clear than I'd expect. She watched me for an answer.

"In his room," I said. "I'll finish up here if you want to go get him." She nodded, spun on her heel, and started toward Iggy's room. Funny how she already knew where it was.

All ten of us had gathered in the kitchen in a few minutes. We dragged a few chairs over from the living room and there were enough seats for everyone.

With one bite, I mentally added _culinary_ _arts_ to my list of differences between me and AJ. I had no idea what this was, but it was freaking _amazing_.

"_Chicken Devan_?" Iggy asked, also reveling in its flavor.

"With improvisation," she answered. "You didn't have all the ingredients I usually use, so I substituted a few things. Is it okay?"

"It's amazing!" I said as the rest of the Flock murmured various positive feedbacks. She beamed.

"Thanks." We chatted casually as we ate, but most of us were generally quiet, savoring the goodness.

When dinner was over, we had Gazzy, Fuzz, Nellie and Nudge on cleanup crew. After everything was put away, Gabriel and Angel appeared (see how they have a habit of doing that?) in the threshold with a Frisbee I bought a few weeks ago, with matching grins.

"Disk?" They inquired in perfect unison.

•••

Iggy's POV

So maybe I had extraordinary reflexes for, you know, a blind kid. But last time I played disk, I ended up with a black eye _and_ a bloody gash on my upper eyebrow. Who knew throwing Frisbee could be so lethal? But then again, _anything_ can be lethal when you're playing with superhuman bird kids.

Anyway, I learned my lesson last time, and I could do without embarrassing myself like that. So, evidentially, I opted out. But the cool thing was, so did Dory.

"I don't have very good hand-eye coordination," she explained. "Plus, the teams were uneven."

"Sorry," I mumbled. I was really pissing myself off today.

"Iggy, if I was blind, I wouldn't want to do _anything_ sports oriented. Come on, let's go sit on that bench." I knew what bench she was talking about; the one by the pond out back. Only, I wasn't sure how I was going to get there. Until, that is, she took my hand.

God, her hand was so soft. And warm. I wondered how mine felt in hers. Maybe—

Shit, I had to get a hold of myself. This was ridiculous. First, she wasn't even my species. Second, I was freaking blind. What girl wanted a guy who couldn't even see her? I could never tell her that she looked amazing, because I didn't know what she looked like in the first place. Third, I didn't even know how long she'd be here. For all I knew, she was leaving tomorrow.

I started to feel a little dizzy, kind of drowsy. I guess getting a whole of two hours of sleep will do that to you.

"Okay, sit…now."

SPLASH!

"God damn it!" I bellowed. Forget being tired. I was jolted abruptly into awareness about the second I landed ass first in the freezing pond.

For a second, the only sound was the ringing in my ears. But then, as the ringing died down, I heard…giggling.

"What the fuck?" I shouted at the source of the giggles.

"That was classic!" Dory cackled.

"That was awful! I mean—it _is_ awful! You're a horrible person!"

"I'm sorry," she lied, humor dripping from her voice. "Need help?"

"No! I don't need your help." I tried to get out of the God damned pond, but epically failed and managed to slip right back in, setting off another round of laughter. I almost started yelling again, but then I paused and thought about what she was seeing, and felt one side of my mouth quirk up. Cruel, maybe. But I had to admit, it was kind of funny nonetheless.

I reluctantly stuck my hand out and let her help me up, leaving my dignity behind to freeze in the pond.

She showed me to the bench—seriously this time, because, come on, we all know a third time would be over kill.

"I really am sorry," she told me once we were both seated. "But you have to admit, that was pretty funny."

"Maybe a _tiny_ little bit. But, you're still going to Hell. You picked on the blind kid." Dory chuckled.

"The blind, super human bird kid," she amended. I rolled my eyes. "Aw, you're shivering. Want to go inside?"

"I'm not shivering."

"Oh, right, you're _trembling_. My bad." I shot her a look, but then realized that I _was_ shaking. Shoot.

"Will you ever forgive me?" She asked in false despair.

"I _might_, but you owe me."

"Oh, I'll do anything to make it up to you," she cooed sarcastically. "No, seriously, what do you want?"

"Hmm," I contemplated. There were a lot of things I could say here. I could be flirtatious Iggy, and say 'a date'. I could be jackass Iggy and think of something really embarrassing. But then I thought of something.

"How fast can you run?"

"Faster than you," she smirked. I nodded.

"Okay. I'll forgive you if you give me a ride around the yard a few times." She chuckled softly.

"I can do that," she said. "Hop on,"

•••

Max's POV

Okay, so you've all played Frisbee before, right? It's simple: catch, throw, jump, catch, throw etc. Well, if you think throwing a disk is an easy sport, you clearly have not played with any cross-breads lately.

Add our flying abilities with their ultra-speed (seriously dude, these guys are freaking fast), plus the inhuman strength we share, and every sport takes on a whole new meaning.

Half the time, we couldn't even see each other. My Flock was always flying up, and the Pack ran so fast they were virtually invisible.

After a while, we started to get worn out (tends to happen when you're 'field' is a few miles long) so we took a little break to catch our breath. So we were all just sitting there when we hear Iggy go, "YEEEEHAW!" in a heavy southern accent.

I caught a quick glimpse of him on Dory's back as she ran on all fours around the house.

"Cover your eyes, Gabe," AJ muttered.

"What were they _doing_?" Gazzy asked me, his eyes wide.

"Just running," I answered, then recalled the image and added, "I hope."

"Emagawd!" Nudge squeaked. That's right, she squeaked. "Iggy finally has a GF! I mean, we're never really in one place long enough for him to get one, but come on, he's 15. That time when I went to school this girl said all the other sixth graders kissed someone, and I was like, 'not me, no fair!'"

"I totally know!" Nellie agreed, making me cringe. Two Nudges…joy. "I love Dory, but she can be so weird sometimes. Like, she and Fuzz are always blowing stuff up, and I'm like 'Gosh Dory what guy's gonna find that hot?' But then we come here and Iggy can't keep his eyes off her! Well, in her general direction, since he's blind."

"I think she's lucky he's blind, because then she doesn't have to worry too much about how she looks. I mean, if it were me, I would anyway, but—"

"Nudge," Gazzy interrupted, exasperated. "Chill."

"Thank. You," Fuzz said. Only he didn't say it. He burped it.

"Aw, I wish I could fart words!" Gazzy moaned. "How sick would that be?"

"Maybe you can," Fuzz said excitedly. "You'd just have to—"

"Moving on," AJ almost shouted. "Can we please, _please_ get back to the game?"

•••

Iggy's POV

"What a rush," I said as Dory got to her feet, dumping me off her back. I landed on the ground with an _umf_.

"Where are we?" I wondered.

"Everywhere," Dory answered solemnly. I rolled my eyes. "Nah, we're in your front yard."

"Did you hear the others when we ran by?" I asked. "Priceless."

"I'm deaf," she reminded me. Ah, shit. Smooth one, Romeo.

"Oh, right, I'm sorry, I just—"

"It's fine," she said. "I was just about to ask you if you saw their expressions." I smiled faintly, then shivered. My clothes were still drenched, and the temperature was rapidly decreasing.

"Let's go inside," I suggested. She took my hand again (sigh) and I half expected to end up in the water again. But despite my worries, I ended up in the kitchen, where everyone else had gathered.

"How come Iggy's all wet?" Gazzy asked. Nudge snorted.

"That could be taken so sexually," she said, inducing several giggles.

"Come on Nudge," Gazzy laughed. "It's _Iggy_." I bit my lip, knowing that Max was about to blow a fuse. Three, two—

"How do you know what that means?" she demanded.

"How don't you?"

"Iggy told me," the Gasman blurted. "And I told Nudge."

"I already knew," Nudge protested.

"Iggy, did you seriously corrupt Gazzy?"

"I might have…mentioned some concepts."

"You _idiot_!" Max snapped. "He's _nine_! Can't you keep your dirty thoughts to yourself?" I felt my cheeks get hot. It wasn't _that_ bad. The kid would have found out sooner or later.

Just then, Angel gasped, having picked something out of one of our heads, no doubt.

"Ewwww, Iggy, that's so gross!" She screeched.

"Ig!" Max reprimanded.

"I didn't say anything!"

"There are children in the room," Angel squealed, putting her hands on her head. Defeated, I shot them all a glare and, for the second time today, sulked to my room, slamming my door behind me.

And that, my friend, is how Max turns simple little comments into big ugly messes.

Once I was all changed, I laid on my bed and mentally reviewed my day in a nutshell.

-Had a weird dream

-ate

-met the wolf kids from my dream

-met Dory

-talked with Dory

-started on a bomb with Dory, Gazzy, and Fuzz

-sulked to room for the first time

-ate heaven

-sat in a pond

-rode on Dory (no sexual comments, please)

-got blamed for the corrupted innocence of the Flock. In front of Dory, who probably thinks I'm a creeper now. Or a pedophile.

-slammed my door like a little girl

Wow. What a productive day.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

**AN: This chapter is pretty short, but the next one is coming soon. It's been kind of hectic, but exams are over Wednesday, so you'll see a bit more of me. I'll probably post the next chapter Tuesday-ish. Happy Father's Day!**

"What about a billboard?" Damian asked as they packed up the cards. He'd won twice, while Fang won three times.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, we can put your mutant call thing on a billboard. A lot of the mutants don't have computers, I'm guessing. But you don't need one to see a billboard." Fang nodded, contemplating the idea.

"Newspapers and magazines might put an add in for us," he added. "We've got to try, at least."

"Tell me something," Damian said.

"What?"

"How come you haven't done anything more thus far?" Fang shrugged, not having put much thought into it. He'd pretty much accepted that his plan had failed, and didn't bother to salvage it.

"You know what I think? I think you secretly don't _want_ this to work out. That way, you can say you made an honest attempt, and go back to Max and live happily ever after." Fang blinked.

"That's a bold accusation," he stated.

"Well, it's what I was thinking, at first, when I couldn't find you. I thought, _Oh well, I'll just go back to AJ and we can hide somewhere while the world dies_. But that's the thing. The world _is_ going to die. So we've got to suck it up, stop being pansy-asses, and freaking _do_ something." Honestly, Fang was having second thoughts on the whole alter-ego concept. He himself would never be so practical, witty, or _articulate_.

"You're right," he mumbled. "You're completely right. I just wish…what if Max hates me?"

"If she's anything like AJ, she won't. Trust me." And you know what? At that moment, it was kind of hard not to.

"So…want to head into town?" Fang asked. "I should probably check my email, and then we can go from there." Damian nodded and slung his bag over his shoulder. Fang did the same, and they walked to the edge of the cave.

"How'd you get up here?" He asked, the thought just accruing to him.

"I jumped," Damian said simply. Fang glanced down. There were several outcroppings, but they were spaced out at least fifty feet apart. He shrugged.

"Whatever works. How are you going to get down?" Damian flashed a devious grin.

"I'm going to jump." Before Fang could say anything, Damian threw himself off the edge of the cliff.

Instinctively, Fang jumped after him, tucking in his wings to gain speed. But then, as the two plummeted toward the earth, Fang noticed something. Damian wasn't flailing like a rag doll. He had his knees tucked into his chest, and his feet were pointing down. And as they dropped, he didn't budge. It looked very strategic.

So, rather than racing after him, Fang unfurled his wings and let himself glide down.

When Damian hit the ground, he didn't splat like a bug on a windshield (ew, gross visual), he extended his arms and legs and kept running. Like, really fast. He hung a wide U-turn, so he was back where he landed by the time Fang floated gracefully down.

"I'm not going to lie," Fang said. "That looked pretty sick."

"Damn right," Damian replied easily. "Where to?"

"There's a public library about a mile away. For the sake of low profile, we'd better walk."

"Low profile? Dude, everyone knows you're a bird kid. It's not a secret." Fang shot him a look.

"That's not the point. Well, it kind of is. People know what I look like. If someone notices me, they might make a big deal of it, and Max might find out."

"Fine, walking it is." Fang pulled his jacket over his shoulders, hiding his wings, while Damian popped his hood to cover up his ears and tucked his tail into his pants. Wow, Fang thought, that was a really weird sentence.

Fang liked this town, which is why he'd been staying close by. You didn't have to weed through houses or hotels or rundown buildings. Everything was right there the minute you came into the town: library, restaurants, convenience shop, and a McDonalds all in one small area.

It was classy, too. The library, in particularly, was really nice. It had marble floors and ivory book cases, complete with big white pillars on the outside, making it look like an important DC building.

It was 8:57 pm, according to the clock by the bank as Fang and Damian sauntered into the library. Another great feature about this town was that the library was open until midnight on weekdays.

Fang logged into a computer to see that he had 8 new messages since he last checked (yesterday morning…OCD much?).

_Watchxoutx24_

_Damn Fang yer a sexy beast! I WANNA F*CK YOU HARD!_

_3 lovelovelove Nessa C! 3 _

Okay…Fang thought, though sadly enough he was almost used to fan mail like this. Pretty disturbing. He clicked through six other girly, _I love you Fang!_ emails, when the last message in the box caught his eye.

_Fang~_

_My name is Else Daniels. I'm 19, and I might be what you're looking for. I've got leopard DNA in me. I'm not very great with teams, but I guess if it'll help save the world I'll give it a shot. Plus, you're hot. _

_~Else Daniels. _

Below her name was the address of her work, some place in Virginia. And a side note to ask for 'Cookie' if she wasn't on lunch yet. Fang barely hestitated before typing a reply.

_Else—_

_We're on our way. See you soon._


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

**AN: Okay, this one's a little longer. And I got it up before I expected (this is what happens when you have too much free time on your hands). Anyway, I'm just going to warn you now of the mushy-ness that intoxicates this chapter. It's not TOO bad, but I just thought I'd warn you now**

"I think you were a little harsh on Iggy," Nudge told me.

"Harsh? Are you kidding?" Nudge and I were sharing a bed, and Angel was sleeping on a cot in our room. AJ, Dory, and Nellie were sleeping in Nudge and Angel's room, Iggy was sleeping in his own room (it was really small) and Fuzz, Gazzy, and Gabriel were sleeping in Gazzy's room.

"They would have found out somehow."

"Gazzy's only _nine_, Nudge, And you're only twelve. And Angel…she's freaking seven!" I glanced over at Angel, who was fast asleep.

"It's not a big deal, Max. You're overreacting. That kind of stuff is all over the media. Like, I read about it in Seventeen. And it's Angel's own fault for reading Iggy's mind." I sighed. Okay, so maybe I was making a big deal over nothing. I guess I just couldn't stand to see my Flock growing up—I wanted them to be young and innocent (to an extent) forever.

"You know what's been bothering me?" I asked Nudge.

"Huh?"

"Why _was_ Iggy all wet?" Nudge pondered this for a second, then shrugged.

"Probably exploded a water bomb or something." I chuckled.

"He's been really weird today," I noted.

"You should go talk to him," she suggested.

"Now?"

"Yeah."

"Nudge, I suck at emotional talk on a daily basis. I can't imagine what I'd be like at 11 at night.

"But you're the only one with relationship experience," she protested. I shot her my death stare.

"You don't have to bring that up," I growled.

"I do, though, Max. You're pretending that he never existed."

"No I'm not."

"And," she continued. "You can't even say his name without your face getting pale."

"Well, yeah Nudge," I snapped. "I love him, and it freaking sucks without him here. It's either we don't talk about him, or go back to the way it was the first few weeks." Nudge looked horrified.

"I'm sorry. I just—"

"I'll go talk to Iggy," I interrupted, kind of pissed. I got out of bed and ambled over to Iggy's room.

"Ig," I called, rapping lightly on his door. I waited there for a few minutes, but there was no answer. Just as I was about to leave, the door creaked open.

"What do you want, Max?"

"I thought we could, uh, talk?" He gave me a quizzical look but led me into his room. "What's up with you today?"

"Hmm." He pretended to think. "It's not like you bitched off at me in front of our company and made me look like a pervert, nah."

"I was just mad," I mumbled.

"You flipped out. Even if I did piss you off, you could have waited until the Pack wasn't around."

"I'm sorry, okay? But you were acting weird before that, too."

"Gee, thanks Max," he said dryly.

"Just tell me what's up. Get it off your chest."

"You wouldn't understand."

"How do y—"

"Because you're not blind! When Fang was here, you could see him. You could tell him he looked great, and he could tell you that you looked beautiful. When you kissed him, you didn't have to worry about missing his God-damned mouth!" I just stood there and gawked at him.

I wasn't sure which emotion was more powerful: sympathy for Iggy, or hurt and rage at the sound of Fang(wince)'s name. Iggy's jaw and fists were clenched, and his eyes were narrow. It's a sad day when a blind kid has a scarier glare than you.

"I'm sorry," I murmured, but he didn't soften. Oh Jesus, I thought. I'm about to go all touchy-sitcom on him. I took a deep breath and went to sit next to him on his bed.

"Listen Ig," I began. The next part, I knew, would be hell, but I had to say it. "If Fang was blind, I'd still love him. If he was paralyzed, or deaf, or mute, or wingless, or limbless, I'd still love him." I felt my throat close up, and swallowed a few times. Oh, Iggy, the things I do for you. "Dory's not going to discriminate against you because you're blind. I just met her, and I know she's cooler than that. Plus, she's deaf; she knows what it's like to have a disability."

"That's not the point," he muttered, but his fists were unclenched and his face was starting to return to it's normal color. "I don't want her to settle. I want her to have the best she can get." I just looked at him for a minute. Who knew Iggy could be so…_sweet?_ Before I knew what I was doing, I wrapped my arms around him in a big hug.

"Aw Iggy. If she ends up loving you, it'll be because of who you are, not what you can or can't do. If you two have a connection, then that _is_ the best she can get." He sniffled, his head still on my shoulder.

"Thanks Max," he mumbled. I nodded, releasing him.

"Any time," I replied, suddenly feeling way to emotional. "Night Iggy."

"Night." I left his room feeling the urge to shower. I wasn't cut out for this emotional shit.

Overwhelmed, I jumped right into the bathroom, not bothering to stop in my room. Nudge would ask me questions, and I was _not_ in the mood to talk. I blasted the water, ignoring the fact that I was taking a shower at 11:43 at night. This just really sucked.

As soon as I got into the shower, it happened. I broke.

My hot tears mixed with the colder water as they trailed down my cheeks, and I gasped for air. My lungs felt small and shrively. Damn Nudge, this was all her fault. She talked about Fang, and made me go talk to Iggy, and made me _remember_.

I was crying because I was remembering how good it used to be. How happy I was, even when we were being hunted, even when we were terrified. Because he was there, right along side me. And now, even with the Flock, and the Pack, I felt inexplicably lonely.

I missed him so much, and I couldn't stop crying. Translation: I wanted to freaking die.

I got mad at myself for crying, and cried even harder. My hands were pruning as I stood there in the shower, wishing I could just stop thinking.

_You can never stop thinking, Max._

Okay, that stopped me dead in my tracks. I hadn't heard from the Voice since before Fang left.

_No shit_, I thought back. _I just wish I could_.

_There's still things to do. _

_SHUT UP!_

But now I was at least alert, so I just off the water, dried up, and dressed quickly. I scuttled back to my room, but by now I was nowhere near asleep. The clock said 1:24, and Nudge was snoring.

To kill time, I went to the kitchen, only to find AJ sitting on a stool, staring at something in her hands.

"You okay?" I asked, a little nervous. She nodded and motioned me over. All she had to do was point; no words were needed.

There was a picture of Fang and a shorter kid, who I assumed was Damian. They were both wearing jackets and walking through some town. The caption was, _The presumed bird-kid was spotted walking into the public library this afternoon_. It was a clear shot of his face, and I knew it was him.

"How'd you get this?" I demanded.

"I went out for a run and it caught my eye," she answered. "But we have to go find them, Max." I thought about it. Fang was really a few towns over. He was really there. He was alive. He was with Damian.

But…he left for a reason. He asked me not to go find him. He…

Screw it. I need that kid. I glanced at AJ with determination glinting in my eyes.

"Let's get some sleep. We'll leave tomorrow."

•••

Fang and Damian were ready to board the plane (it was the easiest way to get both of them to Virginia) when Fang spotted a familiar face on the cover of the periodical.

"Shit!" He cursed. He quickly paid for the paper and showed Damian, whose eyes widened.

"How did that happen?" He asked.

"I didn't see anyone taking pictures," Fang agreed. Seriously, didn't they have anything better to do? They were leaving, but they couldn't be noticed again. He was sure that Max wouldn't follow him, but you never know. He couldn't have her showing up, period. He wouldn't be able to carry out his plan.

"AJ is going to go to that town," Damian told him confidently.

"Not necessarily."

"You don't understand. She and my Pack don't have any problems with stalking. I made the mistake of checking on them a few weeks ago, and saw that she was trying to find me. She'd been on this bit of news like a hound." Fang grimaced.

"We'll just have to cover our tracks." They were next in line

"Two tickets to Richmond International," Fang told the lady politely.

"Names?" She asked.

"Wesley and Chester Rayson. That's R-a-y-s-o-n." The lady nodded, clicked some things, typed some things, and handed them the tickets. Fang paid, and she smiled.

"Enjoy your flight!" Once they were walking toward the plane, Damian shot him a questioning look.

"Wesley and Chester Rayson," he repeated. "Are you serious?"

"I think those are names that describe us the least," Fang replied. "Come on, Chester."

"You couldn't have thought of a cooler fruit, like mango or papaya. Nobody even likes raisons."

"Does Chester Papaya really sound plausible?"

"Wesley Mango does." Fang snorted and rolled his eyes. The flight was already letting people on (convenient timing) so they showed their tickets and boarded the plane.

Fang could have sworn he saw the Flock as he gazed out the window. He knew his eyes were playing tricks on him, but he tried to convince himself otherwise. His plan was finally panning out. They were going somewhere. So why did he feel so regretful?


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

**AN: Hey guys. Today was my last day of school, so Happy Summer! (Yeah, that needs to be capitalized) Reviews are nice, so please give me some feedback, good or bad. Thanks!**

When Max uses her _I have a plan voice_, you know shit's about to go down. Just like when Ash from Pokemon turns his hat backward. Frankly I wasn't in the mood for a plan, adventure, or trek of any sort. I just wanted a few days, at minimum, to chill with the Pack. I was confident and pumped up after Max's _Dr. Phil _segment last night.

But then Max showed us the picture of Fang and the runaway Pack member (well, Nudge, described to me what they were seeing) from the newspaper, and that was that.

I probably would have been a little angry that we were leaving so quickly, but then I discovered that the Pack was coming with us, and my mood brightened. Plus, Fang was one of my best friends. We'd all been pretty torn up when he left (though nothing compared to Max) and we were all pretty psyched that we might see him soon.

Assuming we wouldn't be gone long, we packed pretty light. Each of us grabbed a change of clothes, some miscellaneous items, and food that would give Max's mom a heart attack (Lays, cheese-puffs, Pepsi, leftover pizza, lots of chocolate—you know, the usual).Luckily, backpacks, food, and clothing were something we seemed to have an abundance of.

The town we were headed to was a little off in the distance, but it would only take a few hours to get there. I was a little skeptical as to why we were bringing clothes, but I guess you never know.

This might make me a creeper, but after one day, I'd already grown accustomed to the sound of Dory's footsteps. I wasn't sure whether that made me a total sketch-fest or just that skilled. Her steps are light, but spaced, which meant she had long strides, which was weird because her head came up to just above my elbows. Maybe I was abnormally tall, but the whole Pack was abnormally short. I doubted she was five feet (sorry, but that's tiny to me, short people of the world).

It was about 12 by the time we left, and Max and AJ were so impatient they were virtually leaping out of their skin. AJ more-so than Max, which surprised me because I knew how upset Max was. It had been decided that we'd walk together through the forest, and then fly and run where ever it was clear enough to.

As we began our trek, I noticed I was lagging behind. All of the other footsteps were in front of me. Well...all but one set. One with light, long strides.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey," Dory responded. She took my hand and steered me left. "This is great. I'm your eyes, and you're my ears." I raised my eyebrows.

"Great? Not exactly my choice of words, considering last time you were my eyes I ended up in a pond."

"What?"

"Oh, you reme—"

"No, I mean, can you repeat what you said? I accidentally looked away."

"Oh," I said, and repeated what I'd said.

"Sorry." Her voice was gloomy and uncharacteristic.

Still feeling oddly emo after my chat with Max last night, I asked, "What's wrong?" She was quiet for a moment.

"Iggy. If you had a choice, would you be blind or deaf?"

"Deaf," I replied easily. That was a no-brainer.

"Why?" I was feeling emo...but not _that_ emo, so I shrugged.

"What about you?"

"Blind."

"Why?"

"A lot of reasons."

"Same." It was awkward for a moment as we walked along, several paces behind the rest. "You know what would suck the most, though?"

"Hmm?"

"Being mute. Can you imagine?"

"Well, you'd be alert to everything around you," she pointed out.

"But you'd never get to voice you're opinion."

"Ooh, Iggy unable to express his thoughts. How devastating." I laughed.

"You'd be lost too," I said.

"You're probably right. It would be so hard to bitch off at people."

"Exactly. Who would I be if I couldn't bitch off at people?" She giggled—no, chuckled would be the more appropriate word. She was too cool for giggling. I grinned because she had a cute chuckle.

"Ig," Max called out. I quickened my pace to catch up with her.

"Yeah?"

"We're coming up to a road, so the Pack is going to run and we're going to fly," she informed me. "Okay?"

"Yep. Just tell me when."

"Now."

"Hmm?" It was too early to think fast. 12 o'clock for everyone else is like 6am in Iggy-hours.

"We just got out of the forest," she said to me. To everyone else, she said, "Everyone ready? Okay, 3, 2, 1." On one, we quickly unfurled our wings and thrust ourselves upward.

"Meet you at the edge of the forest," Max called down.

"Yup," AJ responded, and with that, we were off.

Nudge told me once that her favorite part of flying was looking down and seeing everyone all small and 'itty-bitty'. Since I was blind, that obviously wasn't my favorite part. No, I like everything else.

Because I have no sight, my other senses are sort of amped up. I mean, they have to be. So flying is basically incredible. The way the muscles on my back felt as the pumped my wings, the feeling of isolation from the rest of the world, the freedom, the moist clouds. The distant whisper of those poor normal people. The soft swishing of the Flock's wings as we coasted on top of the world. It's an experience we take for granted too much.

I was too busy enjoying myself (gah! Iggy having fun, what a disaster) that I didn't realize I was way ahead of the Flock.

"Iggy!" Max called. I turned my head, not expecting them to be so far back. "Land, n—"

Too late. I'd already flown full speed into a tree, and was now plummeting to the ground as I drifted out of consciousness.

•••

"Iggy, you lard." The words came as a rough mutter from below me.

"Argahfargrugh," I responded. I slowly became aware that I was sprawled out on top of someone.

"I know you're finding pleasure in this position," Dory wheezed. "But you're kind of crushing my lungs. And your wing is in my ear." I lazily rolled right, and heard a grunt as I dropped to the forest floor.

"What happened?" I mumbled, my head absolutely throbbing.

"You crashed into a tree," Max told me. "That's a cute bump you got there." I wasn't alert enough to muster up a sarcastic look, but crashing into a tree did ring a bell, faintly.

"How come I didn't die?"

"You can thank me for that," Dory said. "I saved your ass, so you owe me for that." I smiled groggily.

"You made me fall in a pond," I pointed out.

"I already made up for that," she reminded me. I shook my head, which hurt like _hell_, oh my God.

"So did you catch me or something," I managed anyway.

"Yes, sir. And you're freaking heavy."

"Why thank you," I retorted, grinning stupidly.

"Come on, lover boy," Max said. "We have to get there today." I felt my cheeks get a little hot, hoping to God that Dory wouldn't notice.

"_Now_," AJ piped in. "We really have to go. He—they—could be gone by now."

"I don't think I can get up on my own," I said solemnly, completely serious. Every inch of me was on fire. Max grabbed my hand and pulled me up, _waaaay_ too fast. I stumbled backward, and someone caught me and pushed me forward. I felt like the Tin Man as someone jumped in front of me to stand me upright.

"Iggy's drunk!" Gazzy cried, cackling maniacally.

"With _love_," Nudge drawled. I may have felt like shit, but I had enough in me to shoot her my best glower. She giggled, and I started forward, still stumbling, feeling really dizzy.

Well now. That wasn't embarrassing.

•••

Fang and Damian just stared, completely unfathomable.

"Are you serious?" Damian muttered. "I'm not going in there."

"We have to. She's the first reply I've gotten."

"She's a stripper!" Damian shouted, gesturing to the 'gentleman's club' they were standing in front of. Fang's stomach was unsettled, but he knew he had to do this.

"Max is going to kill me," he moaned, taking a step forward.

"I don't even want to think of what AJ would do to me. We're not going in."

"We have to. Remember you're 'suck it up and stop being a pansy' lecture?"

"Doesn't apply here."

"Look, I don't want to go in either. Max would be crushed if she found out, and then she's crush me. But we seriously have to. It's not like we're going to...order anything. We just need to find her, and then we can talk outside."

"You seriously want to have a stripper in your army? What's she going to do, seduce them to death?" Damian snapped. Fang sighed.

"Let's just give her a chance."

"Fine." They walked up the steps awkwardly, not looking forward to this experience, which is not something any other guy walking up these steps was probably thinking.

"May I help you gentlemen?" The woman—no more like girl—at the front desk asked. Her hair was piled miles on top of her head, hard with hairspray. Her eyes were dark with makeup and her lips were a purplish color, possibly due to the odd lighting. Fang couldn't hear her well due to the deafening music. He kept his eyes locked on the girl's, not letting them wander elsewhere.

"We're looking for Else Daniels," he said. She cupped a hand over her ear. "We're looking for Else Daniels," He repeated louder. She looked confused.

"Cookie," Damian put in, and the girl beamed.

"She's in back right now. As a matter of fact, she's going to be on lunch break soon. Would you like one of the other's to help you out? I'm free for one of you." Fang tried not to look horrified as he visualized Max's reaction to this.

"No, we just need to talk to her. Can you tell her Fang is outside?" She gave him an odd look.

"Sure. Are you sure I can't do anything?"

"No, thanks. Bye." He spun on his heel and walked out, Damian following close behind.

"So what now?" He asked once we were outside.

"We wait," Fang said. They leaned against the building, and didn't do much else. Then suddenly, someone shouted at them.

"Nick?" Fang turned to see a girl leaning out of her car. She looked faintly familiar...

Lissa! That girl from when the Flock went to normal school! Fang glanced at her, remembering how it had made Max so jealous back in the day. Damn, he missed Max...

"Hi Lissa," he said shyly.

"Hey Nick! Oh my God, I can't believe you're here! Are your brothers and sisters here? Who's your friend?"

"Um, no my friends aren't here. This is my friend Chester. We were just leaving..."

"Hi Chester! Wait...why are you at a strip club...?"

"Oh, we just need to talk to someone."

"I thought you were different from that, Nick," Lissa said disapprovingly.

"I have a girlfriend," Fang stated. "I really need to talk to someone. Why are _you_ at a strip club?"

"My sister works here," she said sadly. "I have to pick her up, because she got in a fender-bender. She's not a bad person though, she just needs the money." Fang shrugged, not really giving a shit.

"Well it's been nice—"

"Lissa? Who are you t—Fang?" He looked over to see a girl with a revealing outfit on coming out of the club.

"Are you Else?" He wondered, perplexed. Did she escape and find her family? Did they know she was a hybrid.

"Ah, yeah. Lissa, why don't you go home. I'll meet up with you later. I have to chat with Fang here."

"Fang?" Lissa wondered, confused. "His name's Nick. He used to go to school with me, before we moved. Well, he moved first, but still." Else looked at her weirdly.

"I'll talk to you later Lissa." Lissa shrugged.

"Okay. Bye Nick, bye Chester!" She smiled once again before driving off.

"You want to explain that?" Fang asked Else.

"I was taken from by family after I was born for experimenting, but my parents weren't fooled enough. They got me back from Itex and raised me normally, but they knew I'd been experimented on, and they knew I had leopard DNA, but they told me not to tell anybody. So I pretended to be normal. But you know what? I'm sick of being normal. I'm sick of this life. So I emailed you, and here we stand." Fang and Damian watched her for a few minutes, surprised. And it takes a lot to do that.

Fang cleared his throat. "Okay. What can you do?"


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

**AN: Just to clarify, Dory is deaf, but she's really good at lip-reading. That's why she asks Iggy to repeat himself, because she looked away. This chapter includes a little of her side on things. **

Dory's ribs were still throbbing from when she caught Iggy, but there was no way she'd admit it. There were a lot of things she wouldn't admit.

Iggy was headed for a tree (he was having serious problems with those today) so she caught his hand and steered him forward.

_Thanks_, he said, smiling faintly. Dory wondered what his voice sounded like. She felt really bad about making him repeat himself earlier; she was usually better than that.

"You're welcome," she replied, feeling the words scrape at her throat. She smiled back at him, though he wouldn't see. His bright blue eyes were locked somewhere on her forehead. She knew he wasn't staring like that on purpose, but it made her feel sort of self-conscious. She wasn't the kind of girl that people stared at a lot.

He seemed thoughtful for a second, and then he said, _Elephant shoes_.

"Huh?"

_Elephant shoes_. She watched his mouth carefully, wondering if she'd seen it right. But she was definitely—ooh. He thought she would mistaken it for _I love you, _like a lot of first timers did_. _He probably didn't realize how beast her lip-reading skills were.

"Elephant shoes too," she said easily. He started laughing, and Dory really wished she could hear his laugh. She was also wondering if her own was weird or annoying.

_So that doesn't work? _

"Not on me. I'm just that awesome."

_Yeah_, he said, his lips moving slowly, drawing out the word. They walked in silence for a few minutes (well everything was in silence for her, but nobody said anything).

_How did you get your name, Dory?_ Iggy asked. Ha-ha, like she'd tell him.

"I just made it up," she lied. He glanced toward her.

_Liar._

"Well, if I told you how I got it, I'd have to tell you my real name, and that's not going to happen."

_Oh, so Dory is short for something? Dor...iella?_

"What?"

_Dorina? _

"No." Iggy turned his head, and that's when it occurred to Dory that Fuzz and Gazzy were right beside her, and Fuzz was saying something to Iggy. "Shut up!" She shouted, cupping a hand over Fuzz's mouth. Iggy tapped on her shoulder, and she spun around to face him.

_He already told me, _Fedora_. Personally, I don't think that's an awful name_.

"It's so embarrassing," Dory moaned. "Can you please not call me it?"

_Only if you tell me why it's your name_. She sighed.

"Because when I was born, I was a little bigger than your hand. They'd already grafted the wolf DNA with mine, and it messed with my growth genes, so I was really tiny. The whitecoats had stuck me in my crate, inside of a fedora. Sketchy, huh? Anyway, once I grew out of it, I started wearing it a lot, so I just started to call myself Fedora. All right?" Iggy felt around his left hand with his right, a perplexed expression on his face.

_You were seriously that small?_

"Yep."

_Well, I guess it's not all that surprising since you're hardly five feet now. _She shot him a look.

"No short jokes. And that's five foot _one_, thank you very much. It's not my fault you're the Incredible Hulk."

_So you think I'm incredible?_ Dory's eyes widened.

"I never said that."

_Yeah you did. You said I was incredible, _and_ a super hero. Is this because I said elephant shoes?_ She rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Iggy, that's definitely why," is what she said out loud. But in her head, she said 'no it's because you're funny and gorgeous and smart, and absolutely perfect for me.' But that was just one of those things she'd never admit.

•••

Max's POV

"Ugh," AJ muttered. "Can't they walk any faster?" I shrugged.

"Probably not." The two of us were a ways ahead of everyone else, eager to get to the town. If Fang and Damian were gone, we could always ask around for them. I'd brought a picture of Fang, and AJ brought a picture of Damian. We figured the picture in the newspaper was a little too blurry, so I went through some of Fang's files until I found a picture of him and Iggy in Antarctica, and AJ already had a picture of Damian and her that she carried around in her back pocket.

"I just want to run so bad," she sighed. "I have an awful feeling that they're not going to be there."

"You never know," I said, also beginning to despair. What were the odds that they'd stay in one place?

"Max, AJ, come over here!" Gazzy called. We turned around wearily to wear he and Fuzz were standing, holding something that I probably didn't want to identify.

"We have an idea," he told me once we were next to him.

"Do I want to know?" He thought for a second.

"Probably not. Just get behind us." I had a bad feeling about this. A really bad feeling. But it didn't look like I had any chance of stopping him.

"Okay," Gazzy said to Fuzz. "Three, two, one!" They tossed some sort of contraption into the air, and then—

Well, I'm not going to describe to you what they did then, because it was just too disturbing for words. In short, they used their...er...'talents' to clear a path through the forest.

"Gazzy!" Angel shouted. "We're supposed to be saving the world, not destroying it!" Hey watery eyes were wide with horror.

"We were just making things easier," Gazzy explained proudly. He and Fuzz exchanged high-fives.

"Think of all the birds you just killed!"

"We didn't destroy the whole forest Ang. Calm down." Angel looked pretty ticked off, and so did Gabriel. Iggy looked amused as Dory filled him in, and the rest of us were just plain disgusted.

"Please," I begged. "Don't ever do that again."

"How do they build these contraptions?" AJ asked, equally appalled. I shook my head.

"I don't know. It's one of the great mysteries of the world, right up there with Amelia Erhart and erasable pens." She laughed.

"Erasable pens?"

"Well yeah. Haven't you ever wondered how those work?" She thought about it for a second.

"I guess so. Well, we might as well take advantage of what they did."

"Okay." I turned to my Flock. "Up and away on three. One, two, three." We took off across the sky, and I made sure to keep close to Iggy. We didn't need him running into a tree again in the near future.

_Turn back, Maximum._

I almost stopped flapping, surprised to hear from my Voice again. But now it sounded like something from a horror movie, all ominous. _That's stupid_, I responded mentally. _We're going to find Fang and Damian_.

_You were not supposed to meet the Pack. You have other things to do._

I felt my blood temperature rising. _I wasn't supposed to meet the Pack, just like I wasn't supposed to love Fang? Who says so?_

_The world, Maximum. The world that still needs your saving_.

_Screw off_, I thought angrily. I glanced down at AJ and the Pack, wondering if she had a Voice, too. If her Voice was telling her that she wasn't supposed to meet us or find Damian. If her Voice told her to save the world.

_The Pack was not built to save the world. You were_.

_How come you didn't bother me before, Voice? How come you didn't bother me before I met the Pack and went to find Fang?_ But of course it didn't answer me, because apparently the Voice was too cool for direct responses. Notice how it won't shut up when I tell it to, but it stays utterly silent when I ask it a question? It can be so infuriating.

"Max, you okay?" Nudge called. The rest of the Flock was now ahead of me; I'd lagged behind during my mental dialog.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said.

"You sure? You look kind of mad." Usually, the only person I'd tell would be Fang. But clearly, he wasn't here now, and I couldn't just not tell anybody that the Voice was back.

"The Voice was talking to me," I told her. She slowed her pace so that she was just in front of me.

"What did it say?"

"It doesn't want us to be with the Pack, or to find Fang. And it still wants me to save the world," I explained.

"Why would it say that?" She wondered. "Maybe it's jealous. Ohh, Max, what if the Voice has a crush on you?" I gave her my best _be serious_ look.

"Nudge, that doesn't make any sense. It used to tell me that I should be with Dylan. If it had a crush on me, why would it tell me that?" Her dark brown eyes got really wide.

"Oh. My. Gosh. What if the Voice is Dylan?" I laughed out loud.

"Nudge, the voice is _not_ Dylan."

"I'm serious Max! That's so plausible. He's, like, trying to influence you so that you'll like him, and he doesn't want you to find Fang, and he knows that if you stay with AJ and everyone that you'll keep looking for Fang!"

"The Voice talks about Dylan in third person though. And could you seriously see Dylan being the Voice? He was just born, like, ten months ago."

"Yeah—right around the time you started hearing the Voice. I think that he can see in your head because he was born that way and he can see stuff that's happening in the future because we already know that and he's a really good actor so we think he's innocent but he's really not. And the doctors like Jeb and Dr. Gunther-Hagen tell him what to say sometimes! Think about it—it makes perfect sense." I thought about it...and it still seemed like a ludicrous idea. I didn't particularly like Dylan, but I knew he wasn't the Voice.

"I don't think so," I told Nudge. "It's a good guess, but it doesn't seem very likely." She shrugged.

"Whatever. I still think I'm right, but you can think what you want."

"I thought you liked Dylan," I pointed out.

"I thought you didn't." The reply was probably the shortest response Nudge had ever uttered.

"I don't. I just don't think he's the Voice. Plus, I don't like the Voice very much either. I would know, it's in _my_ head."

"You do have a point. Oh well. Just keep it in mind."

"Will do Nudge." We were quiet for a minute as we approached the rest of the Flock.

"Do you think we'll find him?" She asked quietly, her eyes flooded with hope.

"Eventually," I replied. Because I would see him eventually, whether that be today, or in—gulp—twenty years. But I _would_ see him again, I knew that much. I just prayed to God that it would be sooner rather than later.

•••

Surprisingly, Else the Stripper was a pretty promising recruit. She could run and jump—not as high or fast as Damian, but in a much more graceful manner. But the biggest thing she had going for her were her claws. It reminded Fang faintly of the Wolverine from X-Men. Her nails extended into hard, sharp claws—not metal, but close enough. They were rock-solid, and were more like built-in daggers than nails.

"She's good," Damian admitted as the two watched her prance around in the field they were standing by. "But why does she have to be a _stripper_?"

"Lissa said she wasn't a bad person," Fang pointed out. "She doesn't seem too...stereotypical."

"It's weird though."

"Not really. I'm sure she doesn't dress like that every day." He was trying to be open-minded, because that's the only way this would work. Truth was, he needed Else. She seemed like a good ally to have, and he wasn't going to hate her because of her profession.

"If she does, she's not coming." Fang glanced at her.

"Honestly, I'm not attracted to her. Max would look—never mind." He was about to say that Max would look better in that, but that was just wrong. Max wouldn't be caught dead in that, and she'd probably kick his ass if he thought differently. Damian grinned for the first time since they'd arrived, knowing what Fang was about to say.

Else was headed toward them now, a smug look on her face.

"Am I in?" She asked, a hand on her hip. Fang nodded, and she beamed. "Cool. I'll just stop at home and grab some stuff, and then we can leave to wherever you were planning on going. Is there anyone else?"

"Not yet," Fang answered. "We were going to work on that."

"Okay. My house is a few blocks away; an easy walk."

"Aren't you living with your family?" Damian wondered. Else nodded. "Well, aren't they going to think it's a little weird if you suddenly disappear?"

"Nope. They know about my abilities, and they've been telling me to do something with my life for the longest time. So that's what I'm doing."

The only person home when they got to Else's house was Lissa. Fang internally groaned as Else invited them in while she packed, knowing that Lissa would bombard him with questions.

"So you have a girlfriend?" She asked as he stood awkwardly in their kitchen. He nodded. "What's her name?"

"Max." Lissa's green eyes widened.

"Your _sister_?" Fang looked away.

"She's not my sister."

"Well, adopted sister, but still. That's kind of disturbing Nick."

"She's not my sister, and my name's not Nick," he snapped. "That was my cover name back before we got discovered." There was no point in keeping that name now, since most of the world knew who he was. And being called Nick was just annoying to him.

"So...you're really part bird? I don't believe it." Fang shot her a look, stood up, and shook out of his windbreaker. He turned around so that she could see his wings, which were folded tightly into his back. There was no room to extend here. Lissa's eyes widened even more.

"Oh my God," she said. "I made out with a famous person!" Fang felt his cheeks get hot, a mix of embarrassment and rage filtering through his brain. Making out with Lissa was not something he was proud of, nor would ever be. It might have been a good thing, though, in that it made Max jealous at the time.

"That is so cool. I can't believe I didn't know you had wings! And how come I didn't notice you when I saw you on TV...? Wow, I'm such a ditz. So why are you going somewhere with Else?" Fang had gathered that Lissa didn't know about Else's powers, which was kind of weird because she lived with the girl. But oh well, Else told him that she didn't want Lissa knowing, so he had to make something else up.

"Oh, we're old friends," Fang said easily. "Chester and her used to go to school together. We're going on a road trip now." He didn't really know why he was still calling Damian Chester, but it kind of amused him. He knew it annoyed him.

"Oh, well have fun!" Else was coming down the stairs now, her hair in a pony tail and wearing a loose t-shirt and jeans.

"We're leaving now," she announced. "Tell Mom and Dad who I'm with; they'll know the name."

"Okay. Bye Else!" Lissa got up and hugged her sister, almost knocking her over in the process.

"Bye Lissa."

Once they were outside, Else asked, "Where to now?"

"Well for starters," Fang replied, "we have to figure out how to acquire a billboard."


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

**AN: I am sitting at my computer right now with twenty-eight bug-bites from my brother's grad party last night, three empty Pepsi cans, a bloody toe, and a screwed up right hand/wrist. Ahahaha jitters. Too much caffeine. Enjoy chapter 8 ladies and gentlemen. **

When Fang woke up, the first thing he saw was Max. She was standing over him, arms crossed and lips pursed.

"Max?" He murmured in surprise, though he was oddly calm.

"Fang," she said curtly. Her eyes pierced at him like daggers boring into his skin, cold and angry. "You broke my heart," she spat.

There were a lot of things that Fang should have been concerned about. He should have been worried about his mission, the Flock, Damian, the Pack, even. In fact, he had no idea where he was. But, he didn't give a care about any of those things. It was quite weird, and he didn't care about that, either.

"I love you, Max," he said simply, scooping her up into his arms. Despite her anger, Max hugged back, and everything was perfect, glowing. Fang beamed, taking in her touch, her smell, her very presence, overwhelmed with emotion.

He began kissing her, tears spilling out of both of their eyes and dribbling down their cheeks. Her hands slid to his neck…and then she gasped, ripping herself away from him.

"Fang!" she screamed. "_No_!" She was being pulled away by some invisible force. Fang grabbed at the back of his neck. He felt nothing, but somehow, he just magically knew, without doubt, that there was a date there. The year on the date was 2029, a year before he was supposed to reunite with Max.

"Max," He called back. He wanted to scream, but it came out as just a whisper. He fell to his knees in despair.

"FANG!"

"It's too late," He whispered, suddenly calm again as Max faded away, screaming and thrashing. "It's too late."

And then he _really_ woke up.

•••

Max's POV

Having a computer genius with you at all times sure can come in handy. Having two was just fantastic. We were crowded around Nudge and Nellie as they hacked into the library computers, trying to see if Fang or Damian had logged in lately. We'd spoken to several people, but none seemed like reliable sources. Most said that they hadn't seen them, and the ones that said they had were kind of…strange.

They were each on their third computer when Nudge called out, "Here!" Several people turned to glower at us, as we were shouting in a library at ten at night, but I could care less. I looked at the screen, and sure enough, it said that Fang Wing had signed in yesterday at 9:03 pm. I could help but crack a smile at the fact that he used 'Wing' as his last name. Maybe I was just giddy, excited that we were finally getting somewhere.

"Okay," I said. "Get into his account." She nodded, clicked some things, then frowned.

"Nellie, want to help me with this?" She turned to me. "You can go wander if you want, this might take a while." I made a face at the unpromising note in her voice, but strolled over to fiction anyway.

I wasn't really looking at or for anything, but the name James Patterson caught my eye. Hmm, sounded faintly familiar. I shrugged and browsed impatiently for another few minutes, not bothering to really look at anything.

"Max," Nudge called. I walked over quickly, hopefully. AJ was over there already too, and I didn't like the expression on her face. "Max, I'm sorry, we can't get in. It's...Remember when I hacked into Itex, and it was really high security?" I nodded. "Well, this is higher. Fang must have had it designed specifically so that we couldn't get into his account. I don't think it's the library. I'm really sorry."

This situation had the potential to make me really, really angry. But Nudge did look truly sorry, as did Nellie, and it's not like yelling at them would make it any easier.

"Oh well," I sighed. "At least we know they were here." Only, we already did know they were here. It said so in the paper. We were back where we started.

"Why don't we just go home?" Gazzy mumbled. Truthfully, that didn't sound like a bad idea. We might as well cut our losses, and if I were anybody else, I would have agreed with him and left right then. Only, I'm _not_ anybody else. I'm Max Ride, and giving up just isn't something I do easily. I'd already started this, and I had to see it through. So I shook my head.

"No, Gazzy. We've got to keep looking." I glanced at AJ. "Where do you think we should head next?"

"Airport," she replied. I almost asked why, but then I answered my own question. They didn't seem to be around, so they must have left. And if they were together, then it would be hard to go great distances since Fang flew and Damian ran. I didn't think Fang was a big plane person, but it was the best lead we had.

"Okay. Airport it is," I agreed. We asked around for directions, and a nice woman with six various aged kids pointed us in the right direction.

We waltzed up to the service desk, where a bubbly lady was shifting through some papers. "May I help you?" She asked. We gave her the spiel and showed her the pictures. She looked at them for a few minutes, then brightened.

"Oh, I think that's Chester and Wesley Rayson. I remember thinking that they acted like brothers, but didn't look anything like it." Wesley and Chester Rayson. Really? I had my doubts, but the lady seemed pretty positive.

"Can you tell us where they went?" I asked sweetly. She smiled at me and typed something into her computer.

"They boarded the 6:45am flight to Richmond International this morning," she replied. **(AN: I'm pretty positive that that wouldn't happen, but oh well. This is fiction)**

"Thanks," I chirped. "When's the next flight there?" She frowned.

"There isn't a direct flight until tomorrow afternoon, but you can take a flight at 2am to Atlanta, and then to Richmond from there. Is that okay?"

"Yep," I said. "Ten tickets, please." She nodded, and sputtered out the total amount, at which point I realized I had twenty dollars in my pocket. I handed it over sheepishly, and she gave me a weird look.

Angel offered up ten, Iggy had quite a big wad of cash (oh Jesus, I don't want to know how he got that) and AJ had enough to cover the rest. I mouthed a thank you to each of them.

"Enjoy your flight," she smiled. We walked past her and took some seats at Terminal 4, which was where our flight would come. In a little over three hours. AJ and I were both kind of jumpy, and you know how kids are with waiting. Especially mutant ones.

This would be an interesting few hours.

•••

"Um, Fang, are you okay?" Else asked. No, he thought, no I'm not. That dream had freaked him out.

"Can you please look at the back of my neck?" He asked, standing up and turning around.

"What am I looking for?"

"Is there any writing there? I.e., a date?"

"Ah, no." He breathed a sigh of relief, only he wasn't really relieved at all. He had a feeling that the date wasn't the point of the dream. But it was just a dream. It was just a dream.

Only, it felt so _real_. So, so real. He could have sworn that Max was in his arms, could have sworn all of those senses weren't his imagination. Weren't you supposed to not feel things in dreams? How come he could feel, smell, hear her?

"Fang?" Damian mumbled. "Dude, you've been moaning _Max_ all night."

"I had a weird dream," Fang explained.

"Who's Max?" Else asked. "How come you're dreaming about him?"

"Her," he corrected. "She's my…" He couldn't say girlfriend (even though he had to Lissa) because they were separated, and wasn't sure what else he could say without sounding weird.

"Love," Damian finished for her. "And AJ is mine, so if I start groaning that in the middle of the night, then you'll know why."

"How come they're not here?" She wondered. Fang sighed.

"It's complicated."

"How come you asked me to look at your neck?" He explained the expiration date concept, causing Else's eyes to bulge.

"Oh my God. Can you check mine?" They did, and it was blank. "So what was your dream about?"

"I'm guessing that you don't want to know," Damian muttered.

"Nah, it wasn't like that." But Fang didn't really want to explain the dream to them. Well…maybe he'd tell Damian later. He still didn't know if he trusted Else completely yet.

"Now that we're up, we might as well head out," he said. They'd wandered around trying to figure out the whole billboard thing, but they were exhausted by nine and checked into a hotel for the night.

"We didn't get any sleep yet," Damian said flatly. "Well, you got like a half an hour, but your shouting kept us up."

"Shouting?"

"Yeah, I think you woke up the whole hotel." Fang cocked his head to the side.

"What did I shout?" He wondered.

"Max! Max! No! It's too late! Max!" Damian said the whole thing in a mimicking voice, so Fang threw a pillow at his head.

"You asked."

"Whatever. Good night." Fang plopped back down, aggravated, more at himself than anything else. He just wanted to make sense of that stupid, horrible dream.

•••

Iggy's POV

"Hey, hottie, want to come over here?" A man's gruff voice called toward us as we walked toward the pizza place. Dory and I had been assigned the duty of getting food, which didn't make much sense considering I was blind and there were eight other able-bodies, but whatever.

Dory was silent, ignoring him. "You're pretty sexy," he called again, beginning to piss me off. I wondered if Dory was offended. She didn't answer, again. "Hey, do you hear me? I bet you're good in bed. Come on over, honey. I'm so horny." It was then that I realized, oh yeah, she can't hear him. I grinned.

Because I was blind, and she was deaf, we didn't realize that he'd been following us. And I guess he didn't notice me standing right next to Dory, because suddenly I felt her jerk backward.

"Listen when I talk to you!" The guy snapped.

"She's deaf," I spat, punching him in the gut with remarkable aim. Ha-ha. Take that. You just got owned by a blind kid.

I didn't know what happened next until I heard him gasp, "What the fuck?" Then Dory jerked again, but this time with more control. I heard the guy sputter backward.

"Keep your hands off my ass, douche," she said in a steely voice.

"_What is that in your pants_?" he wheezed.

"My tail," she replied easily. "Now why don't you go molest someone your own IQ level or physical capability?" I laughed without meaning to as he hyperventilated and scurried away.

"Nice one," I commented.

"That was a really weird situation," she responded. I nodded solemnly.

"Yes it was," I agreed.

"I love when people randomly grab me for no reason," she said sarcastically.

"Me too." She cackled, and then I felt her arm brush mine ever so lightly, causing my arm hairs to stand on end.

"Thanks for punching him," she said. I shrugged.

"He deserved it. You should have heard what he was yelling at you."

"Don't tell me. I don't want to know."

It was late, and I was hungry, and I was a little hyped up from that last situation there. So when my hand randomly reached over and smoothed down her hair…that wasn't my fault. It, er, spasmed.

And when I said, "Your hair is beautiful," I was just making a statement. I wasn't flirting with her, nah. And when I dropped my hand and grasped hers, that was so that I wouldn't walk into a poll or something.

I swear.

So when we got back to Max with our arms full of pizza boxes and I sat down in the seat next to Dory, you probably know by now that that was by chance. It was totally by chance.

But seriously, it's not my fault that we both fell asleep, so it's definitely not my fault that I woke up with her head on my shoulder and her arm draped across my torso.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

**AN: Hey! A bit of advise: if you're playing soccer, and someone on the opposing team is pissing you off, wait until the last second of the game to completely level her. And then laugh when she screams at you. It's so worth it. Haha, I'm so awful. Here's chapter 9.**

Max's POV

I had to stay awake. It was one in the morning, and my eyelids were heavy. AJ and I were the only two left awake, so we took turns pinching each other. It kept us awake, yeah, but we were probably both growing CD-sized bruises on our forearms.

With nothing better to do, I decided to survey our bunch. Let's see… Nudge and Nellie were sleeping with their heads together, like they were discussing some celebrity gossip. Gazzy's head was thrown back, and his arms and legs were outstretched, his arm slung over Fuzz's head. Fuzz was curled up into a little ball, his mouth open and drooling. Ew. Angel and Gabriel had made themselves little beds on the ground out of their bags, and looked oh so innocent when they were asleep like that.

Then I came to Iggy and Dory, and thought, _awww_. In their sleep, they had shifted to a position where they were hugging each other, Dory's head on Iggy's shoulder, and Iggy's head on top of hers. I wondered how they'd managed that, with the armrests between them, but whatever. It was still pretty adorable, and that's coming from _me_, which says something.

I glanced over to see that AJ had fallen asleep. Oh great. The worst part? I really, really had to pee. And don't think I'm going to leave a group of sleeping mutants alone for more than two minutes.

I crossed my legs, willing someone to magically awaken. AJ, Iggy, Dory, anybody! I nudged AJ, but she was out like a light. "Gah," I muttered. Okay, they could wait two minutes, right? Yeah, two minutes. The bathroom's right over there…I'll just pee and come back, quick like a bunny.

I got to my feet and sprinted to the bathroom. When I was done, I sprinted back…

And of course, in those two minutes, all Hell had to break loose.

•••

Iggy's POV

Isn't it weird how we have to get attacked when the blind kid is the only one awake? I was trying to get back to sleep when I heard Max shuffle away. I guessed she was running to the bathroom or something, because there was only one set of footsteps, and they were hers, undoubtedly.

Then I heard another pair of more clunky footsteps approaching our little area. I felt bad, but I had to shake Dory awake to check this out.

"Whaa?" She mumbled. She noticed our position, and jumped up quickly, inducing the blush that rose to my cheeks. Instead of saying anything, I gave a minuscule nod in the direction of the footsteps, and made a questioning look.

"Oh my God, it's that guy from before," she hissed. My eyes widened.

"That one that tried to—"

"Yeah. I'm going to pretend to be asleep, kay?"

"Okay." I listened with curiosity as the steps got closer.

"Hey," the deep, familiar voice boomed. I glanced up.

"Yes?"

"You're that kid who punched me! I don't take kindly to that."

"That sucks. I'm sorry, but you're an asshole. Can you please get out of my face?" I was too tired to think, to be quick-witted, to even really talk. I just wanted him to go away.

Suddenly, he grabbed me by my collar and yanked me upward. I glared, thinking, you have no idea what you're doing.

"Die bird kid!" He shouted, whipping me to the ground. Wait, wait, wait. Hold up. How in the world did he know I was a bird kid? You couldn't see my wings, and although the Flock was pretty popular, I doubted we'd be recognized individually; well other than Fang and Max. I got to my feet and smashed my head into his stomach.

We continued to mindlessly punch at each other, as everybody else started to come to, when I heard a snap and cried out in pain.

I'll give you three guesses on what he broke. Arm? No. Leg? No. Neck? No. It was my wing. He'd snapped my right wing.

"Iggy!" Several people shouted. I picked out Max's voice, Dory's, and Gazzy's, but everything was blending together. It hurt _so damn bad_. How come it's always _me_?

But the thing that bothered me the most as my wing throbbed piercingly and my head spun, was that no human could break my wing. I knew that for a fact.

•••

Max's POV

Damn my bladder. Damn the seven Pepsi's I'd downed earlier. Damn my judgment. Iggy's wing was broken, and it was all my fault.

We took care of that 'guy' easily, but it freaked me out. Just fighting him, I could tell he wasn't just any old guy off the street. He had crazy, wild eyes and was freakishly strong. Iggy was tough, and I knew that it took a whole lot to break a bird kid's wing.

Now his face was twisted in pain, and he was clutching his right wing with his left hand. Sweat was beading on his forehead, and we had about twenty minutes before we had to board our flight.

_This is your fault, Max_, said the Voice.

_Duhh_, I responded mentally.

_You could have prevented this. You must turn back now. Leave the Pack._

"No!" I shouted. The Flock and Pack turned to look at me (minus Iggy).

"What?" AJ asked.

"The Voice says that this happened because we didn't turn back," I fumed. "It wants us to leave y—" Shit, I thought. I hadn't told them about the Voice. They had no idea that I wasn't the only one in my head.

"Yes we do," Gabriel murmured. "Angel told me." I shot her a look, but was too concerned about the Voice to care.

"It doesn't want you to find Fang?" AJ asked. I shook my head.

"And it doesn't want us to be with you guys."

"I don't care if someone breaks my other wing," Iggy grunted. "We're staying with the Pack." My heart swelled proudly, and I smiled as I noted his right hand, which was intertwined with Dory's.

"How bad does it hurt?" Dory asked, concerned. Iggy surprised us all by smiling wryly.

"It's not bad. You know, I'm used to it." I gave him an odd look, pretty sure that he'd never broken a wing before. As a matter of fact, have any of us? I don't think so. Dory didn't smile, though; she knew he was lying.

"This is all my fault," she muttered. She looked up at me, like she was ready to explain further.

"No," I said, "it's mine."

"No. That guy was hitting on me earlier, so Iggy punched him, and I pushed him and rejected him because he was a scum bag. But if I'd just walked away…"

"I'm the one who punched him," Iggy pointed out, but Dory wasn't looking at him.

"I shouldn't have gone to the bathroom," I put in. "If I'd been here, I could have helped you get rid of him."

"Guys," AJ interrupted. "We're wasting time. We don't have enough time to sit around and blame ourselves. We have to get Iggy help—quickly—and board the plane."

"How are we going to get help?" Iggy asked. "Do you see any avian-human vet-doctors around? I don't."

"You don't see anything," Gazzy reminded him, and he glared.

"Take off your jacket, Iggy," I said. "I've got to look at your wing. Hopefully I've spent enough time with my Mom to pick some things up." He nodded and unzipped his jacket, revealing a bare chest and a distorted wing.

"Can you extend?" I asked.

"I can try," he responded. His left wing shot out (ignore the stares and gasps from onlookers) but his right one hardly unfurled.

"I'm going to try to pull it," I told him nervously. "Tell me if it hurts." Tenderly, I grabbed the bottom of his wing and slowly pulled it out.

"_Ah_," he hissed, so I stopped. I gently probed the wing from the part closest to his back and out. Right at the first fold, he gave a muffled cry, and then looked away like he was embarrassed.

I felt so bad, knowing that this was causing him pain, but I had to softly apply pressure to the joint to see if that's where it was broken. Well, what do you know? I could feel the spot that it broke, but had no idea how to fix it.

_Fifteen minutes_, Angel reminded me.

"Wait one second," I blurted, racing to the nearest pay-phone. I popped in two quarters and dialed my Mom's number.

"Hello?" She picked up on the first ring.

"Mom, it's me," I said. God, I'll never get tired of that line.

"Max? What's the matter?"

"Iggy's wing is broken at the first fold and we have to get on a plane in fifteen minutes," I explained rapidly.

"How come you're getting on a plane?"

"It's a long story. Do you know what I can do?"

"Well, I know how to fix a bird's wing, so it'll have to suffice. When a bird comes in with a broken wing, we tape the wing to the bird's torso, just tight enough so that it can breathe. It usually had trouble walking afterwards. Is this helpful?"

"Yeah, thanks Mom." I hung up and looked around frantically, wondering if there was any place I could acquire medical tape. Giving up, I ran to the front desk.

"Is there any place I could get some medical tape?" I asked breathlessly. The man working there gave me a concerned look.

"What do you need that for?"

"My friend broke his…wrist. And he's on his way to a volleyball tournament so we need to tape it up fast."

"There's a convenience shop over there that you can try," he told me, pointing. I glanced over my shoulder, nodded, and took off.

They had medical tape, all right, but it came in tiny little rolls that definitely wouldn't cover Iggy's wing and torso. I purchased four rolls and ran back to the group.

"Okay, Ig, turn around." He did so, and I almost started taping before I realized I'd be sticking the adhesive on his bare skin/feathers. "Pre-wrap!" I barked.

"On it," AJ said, running off. Ten minutes…

"What are we doing?" Iggy asked wearily.

"My Mom said to tape your wing to your body."

"What? How am I going to fly?"

"You have a broken wing. Clearly, you won't be flying much."

"I'm going to be so unbalanced," he muttered. Nine minutes…

"Do you want me to tape the other one too?" I snapped. He shook his head as AJ returned.

I made quick work, folding his wing and wrapping the pre-wrap around him. I had Dory hold it in place as I took out the second roll. He had to hold his arms up, and I couldn't imagine how uncomfortable this was, but it was all we could do.

I ended up using almost all four rolls of tape by the time I'd finished.

"I feel like a mummy," Iggy grumbled as we helped him put his jacket back on. He kept leaning to his left, and we had to keep steadying him.

One minute.

This process was too slow going. We had to get on the plane, and Iggy was moving at a snail's pace. I locked eyes with Dory, and said, "You grab his legs, I'll grab his arms."

"What?" Iggy asked. We scooped him up, causing him to grunt a little in surprise, but now we could move quicker.

We arrived at the terminal with about ten seconds left. We stood Iggy up, handed in our tickets, and boarded the plane.

_Damian, Fang, here we come._

•••

Apparently, Fang checked his email like a chick. That's what Damian and Else agreed on, at least. They were planning on heading to New York, then California, since major Itex corporations had been located in both those places. If mutants had escaped, and were on their own, there was a big chance that they wouldn't venture too far.

Before they left, though, Fang insisted on stopping at the library. The other two didn't have much say in the matter.

There were several emails sitting in his inbox, but Damian and Else weren't in a very patient mood, so he just clicked on the one that looked important.

_Fang-_

_Dude I saw u and the flock in ma paper yesterday and today! It was so cool. Everybody is like whoooaaa. I'll attach the link to the paper website if u didn't like see it cuz it's pretty fantastic. [:_

_-Rush_

Curious, Fang clicked on the first link. It was the same picture he'd seen in the airport, of him and Damian. He clicked on the second article, and his heart stopped.

There was a picture of Iggy, wincing in pain, and he had a distorted-looking wing. Max was in the corner of the picture, taking something out of a package, and the rest of the Flock was gathered around. There were also several other kids, and he assumed they were the Pack. In fact, Iggy was holding one of their hands. Intrigued, Fang read the article that followed.

_**Stranger than Fiction**_

_The infamous bird-children were spotted at the county airport today. Quite a bit of commotion stirred around one-thirty in the morning as the blonde boy got in a fight with a much larger man. Emilee Davis, 16, witnessed the fight first hand: _

"_It was so terrifying. The kids were just minding their own business, when this big ugly guy came up and started yelling at the one. He said, 'die bird kid die!' and there was this huge fight. Then I heard a snap, and the boy wailed and toppled over. I wasn't sure what was going on, until the girl came over and he showed his wings! It looked like one was broken, and they taped it up with medical tape, like a bird."_

_Reporters were on the scene quickly, but the avian-humans and their friends had already boarded their flight. The spotting of the surreal children so close to home aroused great controversy within the community. _

"_Things like that shouldn't exist," Bethany Haris, 57, argued. "It's just too weird for this world. Go back to the nest you came from!" _

_Others felt differently. Many find the bird-children a fantastic miracle, such as Ben Hopkins, 21, who said, "I think those kids are pretty sick. People should just chill and let them do whatever they do." _

_Police are still looking for the attacker. There were many witnesses, but none seemed to recognize the husky man as any of our culprits. If you have any information, please email us at __. Thank you for your cooperation. _

Well shit, Fang thought. It was all too much to take in. Iggy's wing was broken? Who was the 'man' who attacked him? Maybe leaving the Flock wasn't helping them…

But it was helping the world.

But they could get hurt…

But it benefits the bigger picture.

Fang mentally groaned. He sounded like such a whitecoat. Life was so confusing.

"Damian, come here," he said. Damian came over and read the article, also baffled.

"That's…really odd." Then he peered closer at the picture and froze. "That's my Pack, with your Flock," he whispered.

"Yeah," said Fang. "I miss them."

"Me t—"

"Hey guys what's taking so long?" Else interrupted, completely shattering their little emo moment. Fang nodded at the screen, and she leaned in to read it.

"What's his name?" She asked, pointing at Iggy.

"Iggy," Fang answered.

"Well, Fang, next time you talk to him, you have to tell him he's gorgeous for me. 'Kay?" He gave her a strange look.

"I'm not going to tell my male friend that he's gorgeous. That's just weird," he retorted. Else looked honestly disappointed.

But what really bothered Fang was that he might not ever talk to Iggy, or the rest of the Flock, again anyway. That really, really disturbed him.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

**AN: Hey guys. This chapter would have been up sooner, but my keyboard stopped working so I went to find batteries, then got distracted and made cookies. Mmm, peanut butter cookies. **

Max's POV

Tell me the last time I did something randomly, on a whim, spontaneously, not thinking things through. Because clearly, that is exactly what I'd done. I'd been so hooked on the idea of finding Fang, that I hadn't stopped to think, _how?_

Sure, we were hopping on a plane to Richmond International. But God knows where he went from there. He could be half way to Yugoslavia for all we knew. So when we arrived in Virginia that morning, I truly had no idea what in the world I was doing.

"I suppose asking around could help," I suggested, but this was a big, busy place, and that wasn't getting us anywhere.

"Nellie, Nudge, why don't you try hacking into Fang's account again?" AJ recommended, nodding at a row of computers. The two were unconvinced, but there wasn't much choice.

"We'll try," Nudge mumbled, and the two set to work.

"While they're working, we might as well try to crack the password," I said, assuming a position at another computer. I tried his name and 'birthday', which didn't work. I tried several other dates, but came up short.

I was seriously getting fed up, when Gazzy bellowed, "I'M IN!" I looked over to see a desktop loading; amazing.

"What was the password?" I asked, astounded. He smirked.

"Fang loves Maximum Ride," he answered, making a kissy face.

"Is not," I muttered.

"It seriously is. All one word." I rolled my eyes, but my cheeks had already flushed, giving me away.

"Okay. Just try to get into his email." He left the computer to Nudge, who hacked in with ease.

I suppose this is where I'm supposed to feel bad for invading his personal space. But I didn't. I was actually incredibly elated. _I was getting somewhere!_ Excited, I clicked on last email, which had some newspaper links. That didn't help us, considering the one article was about _us_.

After clicking on a few more, I came across one that seemed like a big pointer. Some girl who wanted to be in his army, with an address located in—all be darn!—Virginia, not too far from here.

"Hey guys," I said, actually grinning a genuine smile, ear to ear. "I know where we're going."

•••

When we asked for directions to the address, the man we asked snorted. I had no idea why until we got there. Cue the jaw-dropping.

"I'll go look for them!" Gazzy offered, eyeing the strip club in front of us with excitement. I shot him my darkest glare.

"No," I said. "We'll have to figure something else out."

"God, I really hope they didn't go in there," AJ moaned. "If Damian did something like that, I swear he's so dead." I nodded fiercely in agreement.

"I don't get it," Iggy said. "Where are we?"

"Your girlfriend's work," Gazzy chuckled. He still looked confused.

"Dory!" Fuzz exclaimed. "I never knew!" It took me a second to catch up, and when I did, I rolled my eyes. Poor Iggy still had no idea what anybody was talking about.

"We're at a strip club, Ig," I told him. _Bing_. I saw the light bulb go off in his head.

"_Hey!_"

"Look, let's just go find a phonebook and look up this girl," I interjected. We located the closest convenience shop, and it turned out to really be convenient. For some reason, they had county phonebooks for sale.

"My gosh that's so random!" Nudge giggled. "'Hey, I'd like some gum, some coffee, and oh, a phonebook too, while we're at it!' Heh heh heh." It _was_ a pretty random thing to sell at a convenience shop, but I wasn't complaining. We used what was left of our (Iggy's) cash to buy the book, then looked up _Daniels_.

There were two entries, but we figured we'd try the closest one first. We kept the book though, just in case.

We arrived at the first house, triple-checking that we were right. When we were absolutely positive, we strode up the steps and knocked on the door.

You'll never guess who opened it. The Boogie Man? Close. An ax murderer? I wish. No, it was the infamous _Red Haired Wonder_!

In case you don't remember, she's the one who I caught sucking face with Fang back when we went to normal, un-capitalized school. And, in case it slipped your mind, I absolutely hate her.

"Max?" She asked, and I was surprised that she remembered me.

"Um, hi. Did you see my…brother around?"

"But he said you weren't his sister," she said, confused. "Fang, right?" He'd been here, I thought, my mind reeling. He'd been in the Red Haired Wonder's house recently. Good God.

"Yes, Fang. What else did he say? Why was he here?"

"Well, he said you were his girlfriend, and he was here because he's going on a road trip with my sister, Else, and this other guy." _He said you were his girlfriend_. I couldn't help but smile at that line.

"Was the other guy short and blonde?" AJ asked, and I saw hope light her eyes.

"Yup. Well, taller than you, but still. So Max, how come you're here?" She glanced at me with her wide, ditzy eyes.

"I was looking for Fang, actually. Do you know where they went?"

"Not sure, really. But I can call Else if you want," she offered. I nodded feverishly. Not that I was too thrilled about him being on a trip with the Red Haired Wonder's stripper sister, but whatever. If I could find him, that's all that mattered.

"Hey Else!" She chirped into the receiver. "Yes, I was just wondering where you were going?...No, just curious… New York? Like the city? Ooh, that sounds like so much fun! Have fun and say hi to N—Fang for me!" She hung up and smiled at me. "They're going to go to New York. She said they were leaving any minute now." _Yes_, I had a chance of beating him.

"Thanks, ummm…." I seriously almost called her Red Haired Wonder.

"Lissa," she said, and I smiled fakely.

"Thanks Lissa."

"No problem Max. Good luck!" You know, I didn't hate her so much now that she'd helped me and respected the fact that Fang and I were together (well, not literally, but you know what I mean). We said our goodbyes and left, ditching the phonebook at someone's doorstep.

"We can't afford any more plane tickets," I announced. "So we'll have to split up."

"It's okay," Nudge said. "Nellie and I can keep in touch with our phones."

"Right. You—wait, what? When did you get a phone?" She held up a little black flip-phone.

"I have my ways, Max," she said in an ominous tone, then burst out laughing. I was going to demand she tell me, but thought better of it. Maybe I didn't _want_ to know.

"Um…okay. You can keep in touch with your phones…" We took off, the Pack dashing through the woods and the Flock soaring through the skies.

I'd been secretly doubtful when we first left, but I knew for a fact we'd find the boys now. Now that we could get into his account, we would always be one step ahead. And when I found him, I'd give him Hell.

•••

Iggy's POV

So first I was the blind kid, as if that's not bad enough. Now I was the blind kid who only had one wing and had to be supported by two other Flock members, slowing down the whole expedition. Say it with me: FML.

Nudge was carrying my right arm, and Gazzy was carrying my right leg. It was probably one of the most awkward positions I'd ever been in, especially when Nudge flew a tad bit faster than Gazzy and I frequently found myself being stretched like Play-Dough. Plus, I was thrown out of balance and kept shifting sideways.

"Iggy, could you hold still?" Nudge called back.

"Fly slower," I moaned.

"Yeah," Gazzy shouted from behind me.

"This is my pace," she said, annoyed. "I won't fly faster, and I won't fly slower. You're lucky I'm not like Max, because then I'd always be flying super fast like she does. Then you'd be totally ripped in half. Ew, that would be so gross. Or maybe I'd just yank Gazzy with me, so then I'd have, like, a chain of people flailing behind me. Heh heh that would be so funny…"

I eventually found myself able to tune her out and focus on more important issues, like keeping myself in balance and not letting my left wing tire out. I could do without the remainder of the Flock attaching themselves to my other limbs and yanking me apart like the Huns.

I was just flapping along in my merry way when I suddenly smashed into Nudge's back.

"What the—"

"Shh, I'm on the phone," she told me. I rolled my eyes. Then Gazzy slammed into my back, and it was like an Iggy sandwich.

"Do you mind?" I muttered, my arm and leg in even more awkward positions.

"It's Nudge's fault."

"Shh, I'm on the phone," she repeated. "Hey Nellie! Yeah, I think we're somewhere over Pennsylvania right now…Yeah, really? OMG I see you too!" She dropped my hand and my whole upper half fell forward, crashing into Gazzy's leg. I pumped myself back up with my left wing, but it was hard work when the only support I had was Gazzy holding my leg.

"Nudge," I hissed.

"Noooooo! That's just Iggy and Gazzy. My gosh Nellie if you were next to me right now I would totally strangle you! Heh heh heh. Yes, then I'd revive you and throw you in a pit of lava!" I blinked, more than disturbed, and shook my head.

"What are you guys doing back there?" I heard Max call.

"Nudge is on the phone," Gazzy answered. "And Iggy's heavy!"

"I get that a lot," I grumbled, when I really didn't weigh that much. None of us did. I only weighed about a hundred or so pounds, but if I was human, I'd probably be over 170. It's all muscle, okay?

I heard the familiar, smooth sound of Max's wings as she approached us. I could hear Angel, not too far off. Max grabbed my hand—I could tell because hers was bigger than Nudge's—and started off again.

"Flap and talk," she told Nudge. "Or we're leaving without you." See, Max was even _faster_. She wasn't in turbo-mode or whatever, but she was in quite the hurry, and my one wing wouldn't cut it.

"Can't…keep up," I managed, sweat beading on my forehead. I was being pulled into a parallelogram…or a trapezoid, or a geometrical shape of some sort.

"We're almost there," she informed me, but she didn't slow down. In fact, I think she even sped up. Gazzy gave up with that side and grabbed my left leg, which wasn't doing much. I think he just wanted to feel like he was helping.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"I think we just passed Splash Lagoon. Just a few more minutes and we'll be there." Huh. I thought we had at least a few more hours. Grin and bear it, I thought.

_Soon, you'll be with Dory, don't worry_, Angel thought to me. I felt my face burn, and hear her giggling in the distance.

_Can you stop invading my thoughts?_ I thought back angrily.

_Where's the fun in that? _

"Stop it Angel!" I shouted out loud. It's called personal space, thanks.

"Angel, stop doing whatever you're doing that's making Iggy made," Max said tiredly.

"He's, like, projecting though," Angel argued. "It's hard not to hear his thoughts."

"I am not. You're just picking through my brain." I knew I wasn't going to win this, so I narrowed my eyes and thought all of the R-rated thoughts I could think of. I grinned in satisfaction when I heard her take in a breath.

"EW IGGY I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU JUST THOUGHT THAT OH MY GOD!" I smirked.

"Maybe you shouldn't have been reading my mind," I pointed out. And that silenced her. I probably should have known that this would come back and bite me in the ass.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

**AN: Hey! I hope everyone had a great weekend, and 4****th**** of July for you Americans. You want to know something? Some people don't realize that sharks aren't in lakes, so when they're sitting on the tube and you scream **_**SHARK!**_** they spaz out and it's totally hilarious. Here's chapter 11!**

"So, you're _sure_ nobody was with her," Fang clarified as they boarded the plane to New York. He was still wary of the fact that Else had just told Lissa where they were going.

"Positive. She would have told me. Lissa's not the kind of girl that holds back information." Well, Fang thought, New York is a big place. It would be pretty hard to find just three people in such a big city.

"We should go to California first," Damian insisted. "Just to be safe."

"No. Even if they _were_ there, they'd never find us." Damian just looked at him.

"You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"Letting your emotions run the show. You're probably secretly hoping that you'll run into Max."

"No I'm not," Fang snapped. "I just don't want to go all the way to California, and then all the way back."

"Well, you're the boss." Fang narrowed his eyes as the stewardess went through the procedures on the intercom.

We're not going to run into Max, he thought. We're not.

But if they did…well he had no idea what he'd do then.

•••

Max's POV

When we arrived in New York, the first thing I thought was, _not much has changed_. It was still busy and chaotic and smelled like smoke, just like last time we came here. I sighed, remembering that this is where I'd first kissed Fang.

"Nellie and the Pack are almost here," Nudge announced, snapping her phone shut. I still had no idea where she got it.

"When they get here, we'll go to JFK airport," I told the Flock.

"Oh my God, that would be so much fun!" Nudge chirped. "So many famous people have been there, you know? Like, presidents and super stars and stuff. This is great!"

"How come we're going there?" Gazzy wondered.

"Well, Fang and Damian took a plane last time. Now they have this other girl, and we still don't know what she can do, but I can assume that they are taking a plane again. If not, we can look elsewhere, but for now, I think that the airport is our best bet," I explained.

"Isn't JFK huge? How would we find them?" I shrugged.

"We'll ask where the next flight from Richmond is. There's a slim chance that we'll find them, but it's all I have right now."

"Max," AJ shouted. I spun around to see the Pack coming at us.

"Hey," I said. I explained my plan, and she smiled.

"I was actually thinking the same exact thing." Ha-ha, figures.

I glanced at the rest of the gang, wary at the way Angel was looking at Dory. She had this devious smile on, and Dory looked a bit disturbed. Oh God, I thought. I could only imagine. But I couldn't fuss about it now; we had to get to JFK.

•••

Iggy's POV

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate New York? Or any big city, for that matter. It absolutely reeks, and I can hardly hear myself think, which sucks when you rely on your hearing.

I couldn't single out single footsteps with all this commotion. At some point, I found Dory's hand, but she yanked it away. Huh?

"Angel told me," she said quietly.

"Told you what?"

"What you were thinking. It's kind of disturbing."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Look, I don't care that you're gay, okay? But when you think things like that—"

"_What?_" My God, I was going to freaking _kill_ that child. "I'm not gay!"

"Whatever." It suddenly clicked: the things I'd thought to keep Angel out of my head. Oh jeez.

"I was just thinking those things so that she'd stop reading my mind," I explained. "I'm really not gay, though. I like…girls."

"Um, yeah. All right. What? Coming!" And like that, she was gone. When a deaf girl pulls the _someone's-calling-me-I-have-to-go_ trick on you, that's when you know you're screwed.

"Angel," I spat.

"Yes?" She was closer than I expected.

"What the Hell did you do?"

"I just showed her what you were thinking. Remember?" She shot back the R-rated thoughts I'd thought earlier back into my head, which is a really weird experience, let me tell you.

"I'm going to kill you," I said gravely. She giggled, and then her voice faded off as she scurried away from me. In fact, I couldn't hear _anybody's_ voices (that I knew). Where was I?

"Max?" I called, hating how defenseless I sounded. There was no response. "Gazzy? Nudge? Anybody?" Still no answers.

"WHERE THE FUCK AM I?" Sorry for the language, but as you can see, I was kind of fed up. That's nice, I thought. Just abandon the blind kid.

I started running, trying to catch up, when I slammed into something big and…squishy.

"What the hell?" A deep voice growled.

"Sorry, I'm blind," I muttered.

"Sure you are."

"Iggy!" I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard Max's voice. She grabbed my hand and quickly got me out of there (that guy sounded like he might end up breaking my other wing).

"What were you doing?" she demanded. I glared toward her voice.

"Being blind and lost. It's a great feeling. You should try it some time."

"Oh, sorry," she mumbled.

"Is that it?" I heard Nudge ask in awe.

"Yep," Max answered her.

"Oh my God…this is so awesome! Like, famous people could be in there right now! If we see someone famous, can I get their autograph, Max? Pleeeease?"

"I doubt there's anybody famous in there," she responded. "And if there is, I doubt they will let you get their autograph."

"I can always make them." Nudge and Nellie started cackling maniacally, and I just shook my head. I kept a hold on the back of Max's jacket, feeling like such a blind loser, as we made our way into the airport.

Max's jacket was red, and that's all I knew at the moment. I didn't know who was ahead or behind me, or what the airport looked like, or what types of people were making all that damn noise. But at least I knew what color her jacket was, because that would _really_ help me. I don't know what I would do if I didn't know what color her God-damned jacket was.

She asked the people when the next flight from Richmond would come in, and the lady answered, "Approximately twenty minutes, in gate seventeen."

"Thank you," Max said. "How would I get there?" The woman gave her directions, and it was just a short walk. I sat down, hating the world more and more by the second.

I was in a crazy city, I was blind, and Angel totally screwed up any chances I had of getting a girl. What I could really use now, was some guy advice. Man-to-man, you know? But it wasn't like I could ask Gazzy (he'd probably tell me to either fart or blow something up. Well, blowing something up doesn't seem like a bad idea, but it wouldn't work at the moment). I'd just have to cross my fingers and hope that Fang would come off this flight.

We sat around the gate, occupying ourselves in various ways. I was pretty sure that Nudge and Nellie were rating guys (weird), and Angel and Gazzy were laughing about things they said to each other internally (even weirder). AJ and Max were murmuring about something, and Gazzy and Fuzz were…well you don't want to know.

So that leaves me and Dory, who just sat there awkwardly. See, this is where we _would_ be chatting and I _would_ be subtly flirting, if Angel hadn't come and ruined everything. Hear that, Angel? I hope you're listening, so that you can hear that you_ totally screwed me over_.

Finally, we heard over the intercom that the flight was arriving. That shut everybody up. We waited in suspense as the doors opened and people started to filter out.

In our lives, there's no such thing as lucky. We just mess up everything, and we're always running around and trying to figure something out. So you can imagine how surprised I was when Max suddenly gasped and whispered, "_Holy shit mother of God it's really them_."


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

**AN: Someone seriously needs to ban me from Barnes and Nobel. I always spend all of my money there. Grr, being a nerd can be hard work.**

Max's POV

When I first saw Fang, I wasn't sure what I was feeling. It was completely jarring, this weird feeling that you hear about in books and movies but never actually feel for yourself.

When he saw me, his beautiful dark eyes widened and his perfect mouth dropped open.

I'm sure AJ and Damian were having the same feeling, but I wasn't aware of them. It was just me and Fang, and the rest of the world was just…gone.

Like that, we were running at each other, like in those sappy romance movies. Only, when we reached each other, we clashed awkwardly, and bonked heads. But I didn't mind.

We were holding each other, and I felt tears fabricating in my eyes. It was just so overwhelming, and…I can't even begin to describe the feeling that washed over me. I just felt so whole and complete and euphoric and pissed all at once.

I kissed him intensely, not like a romance movie, but like in an action movie, right before the zombies take over or the building explodes. You know, I'm not quite sure what I'm talking about. It was epic, let's just leave it at that.

Then I pulled back and slapped him, hard. I felt so badass. He just stared at me, appalled.

"You _idiot_," I began. "You freaking left me. I loved you. Well, I still do, but whatever, that's not the point. Listen to me. I don't care about your mission or that we have to save the world or _anything_, got it? Where ever you go, I'm following. You can't get rid of me that easily." He tried to kiss me, but I turned my head. "I'm not done yet. Now, I understand that you want to start an army or something, but who says I can't be in it? Who says our whole Flock can't be in it, or the whole Pack for that matter? Who says we can't co-lead? God, you're so stupid sometimes. I can't even believe it." He blinked.

"Now are you done?" He murmured, his voice causing my heart to give a little squeeze. I thought for a second, and then nodded.

"I'm done. You can kiss me now."

•••

When Fang first saw Max, he was in shock. Then the shock turned to _Oh Shit_, and then _Oh Shit_ turned to pure ecstasy. They hugged and kissed, and he couldn't think of a more perfect moment. Then she slapped him and started talking, and he was mixed between all three feelings.

When she said, _you can kiss me now_, it went back to ecstasy. All he could think was, _my God how could I have ever left this?_ It was perfect, even for being in the middle of a crowded airport. _Especially_ for being in the middle of a crowded airport.

After they kissed, Fang realized that there was some introducing to be done. He and Damian introduced Else, who looked like she was feeling pretty awkward, to everybody. Then, Damian introduced Fang to his Pack, and Fang introduced Damian to the Flock.

"And this," he said, drawing it out. "Is my Max." She grinned, and Fang's heart thudded. He couldn't even be irritated at the fact that his whole mission was ruined, because suddenly, he didn't even care anymore.

She wouldn't detach herself from his side under any circumstances (that would suck when he had to pee). She wouldn't even let him go buy a personal pizza by himself.

"You're going to run off," she said, getting up to follow him. "I know it." He rolled his eyes.

"I couldn't do that," he told her honestly. Max just shook her head.

"That's what I thought last time," she murmured. Shit, Fang thought, I'm such an ass.

"I promise," he said.

"That didn't stop you last time."

"Well, this isn't last time, okay? This is now." She was unconvinced.

"I _know_ you, Fang. You're the only person I know who is almost as stubborn and persistent as me. Luckily for you, you're not _as_ stubborn and persistent."

"Luckily," Fang agreed.

"But I'm still keeping an eye on you."

"You can watch me all you want. I'm not going anywhere."

•••

Iggy's POV

You know what sucks even more than being blind, having the girl you like think you're a gay pervert, and having a broken wing? Nothing. At all.

I really wanted to talk to Fang, because he had experience, right? He must have done something right, because now Max was all over him. I can't see, and I still knew that. But I've been totally failing at this whole girl thing. I've finally admitted to myself that yeah, I like her and yeah, I want to ask her out. But that's kind of hard when she's completely avoiding me.

Again, FML.

The problem with talking to Fang was that Max was glued to him. Like, Gorilla Glued. So when I asked him if I could talk to him, Max came too. It was like a package deal. And excuse me for not wanting to talk about girls when one was right there.

"Um, can I talk to you alone, Fang?" I sounded like such a creeper. Next I'd be like, _I think we'd be more comfortable in the bedroom_. Gah, shivers. You can pretend I didn't just think that.

"Make sure he doesn't take off," Max told me, like an overprotective mother.

"Yes ma'am," I muttered as she went back to the group.

"What's up?" Fang asked.

"Well...my life sucks." I explained to him the whole situation with Dory in a mumble, because I was honestly embarrassed.

"So what do I do?"

"Um…I don't know." I blinked. Wow, was he a big help or what.

"Come on Fang. You have Max. How'd you do that?"

"Honestly? I just played it by ear. You know, randomly kissing her until she gave in." My God, he had it so easy. If I randomly kissed Dory, she'd…nah, I don't even want to think about that.

"And she was fine with that?" I asked, astonished.

"Not really. The first few times she took off." Huh, well clearly he was better at bouncing back than I was. If a girl ran away from me, I'd probably lock myself in some room and throw a self-pity party. Well, maybe not, but you never know.

"What do you think I should do?"

"I have no clue, man. That's rough. I guess you should just give her time to think about it or something. She's supposed to be you're, like, alter-ego or something, right? You'd get over it."

"You have a point," I admitted. But who knew how long she'd take to come around?

"So…are we done?" I nodded, and he went back to Max and everybody else.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder, and instinctively, I spun around and whacked whoever it was.

"Ow!" Dory exclaimed. I gaped. It was such an _Oh Shit _moment.

"I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine. Who needs a functional jaw, anyway?"

"Oh jeez, I'm sorry. Seriously, though, I was expecting that to be someone's stomach…"

"More short jokes? Really? You owe me now." I laughed in spite of myself. It was just so easy to laugh around her.

"Don't I already owe you for landing on you?"

"Oh yeah, there's that too. Man, you're in a lot of debt. But anyway, I wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for being a bitch."

"What? You weren't a—"

"Yes I was. I was also being hypocritical, because I did the same thing to Gabriel last week. So I guess I owe you now, too?"

"You d—wait. I thought of a way we can both repay each other." I felt like I had those little random figures on my shoulder. The one on the right was shouting, _Don't do it Iggy!_ And the one on my left was screaming _DO IT DO IT DO IT!_

"What's that?" Well, here goes nothing.

"I could take you…on a date."


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

**AN: I actually did research for this chapter! Thanks, Google/Google Maps! **

Iggy's POV

What would you do if I told you that at the end of the day, I was alone in a hotel room, leaning hopelessly against a cracking door, with three burly super-men pounding ravenously on the other side? Because that is, in fact how it was.

Back to earlier, though. You'll never guess what Dory said when I asked her out. She paused for a minute, and then said, "But Iggy, didn't you spend the rest of your money on that phonebook?" I tried not to make a face. I had to stay suave, you know?

"I have ways of acquiring cash," I bluffed, sounding more like a criminal then I'd intended.

"Well, as long as it's not illegal." I grinned.

"Of course not, because you seem like the kind of person who would be concerned with abiding by the law," I retorted. Really, though, the best plan I had was hitting up the Bank of Fang, which is a really sad statement.

"You have a point. So if I agree to this date, where do you plan on taking me?" I shrugged, not having thought that far.

"Where ever you want to go. I'm the one in debt, remember?" She considered.

"Surprise me," she said, and then she was gone. I started to worry about where I would take her, when I suddenly realized something: _that was a yes!_

I don't know if you understand how much self control it took me not to run and clack my heels together like the Scarecrow in the _Wizard of Oz_. But instead, I settled for standing there red-faced and smiling dopily.

I was still a sightless, broken-winged bird kid, yes. But now I was a sightless, broken-winged bird kid…_with a date_. That's what made all the difference.

•••

"Do you think my wing is still broken?" I asked. Fang and I (big accomplishment for Max to let him go somewhere without her) were on the streets of New York, looking for a good spot for me to take Dory after the Crema, a Mexican restaurant that I previously made reservations to.

"Beats me," he answered. Ah, inarticulate Fang was back.

"Should we call Dr. Martinez and ask?"

"No idea."

"I really hope it's healed now. Maybe I can fly her somewhere…" I felt my eyes light with excitement. Then I envisioned my wing giving out and causing both of us to plunge to our deaths. Great idea, Iggy.

"Yeah."

"How come you're so moody?"

"I'm not moody. You're just over-excited." Well….maybe he had a point. I _was_ pretty pumped.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm actually really happy."

"Why?"

"Why not? I'm back with Max. That's enough to make me pretty happy for a while." I tried not to let on that I was totally shocked that he was admitting to having emotions. It was like when the Cowardly Lion admitted to being cowardly. Wait, what is up with me and _Wizard of Oz_ similes? Weird.

"Where are we?" I wondered. I could smell smoke mixed with some sort of pastry, like fried dough or something. He thought for a second.

"New York."

"That's not vague," I scoffed.

"Well around us there's a pastry shop, a guy selling hotdogs, and an ice-cream shop."

"Yes! I'll come here. Who doesn't like ice-cream?"

"Me."

"Lies."

"I'm serious."

"No you're not."

"Yes, I am. I never liked ice-cream." I shook my head.

"You're so weird Fang. I could have sworn I've seen you eat ice-cream before."

"Dude. You're blind." I grimaced.

"Thanks."

"Any time. And just because I eat ice cream doesn't mean I like it. So, now that we've found your place, can we leave?"

"Umm….first I need to ask you something."

"Go for it."

"Can I borrow some money? I spent all mine."

"And you think I have any? I've bought five plane tickets in the last few days, man. What ever happened to Max's credit card?" I thought about that for a second. Clearly we didn't have it…but where was it?

"No clue. Nudge probably stole it for clothes or something." Oh, that's right! Gazzy and I…_borrowed _it. I shivered. "It's gone," I said out loud, recalling that day. It went _so high_!

"You blew up a credit card," he rephrased.

"Sort of."

"That's nice. You didn't think, hmm, I could buy whatever I want with this?"

"No. It was impulsive. We had to substitute it for something else. Remember, you wouldn't let us use your—"

"I remember." I grinned at the memory…he was so pissed.

"Ah, those were the days."

"Yeah, when—" he was interrupted by the obnoxious ring-tone that belonged to the Nudge's cell phone. It had been decided (much to Nudge's dismay) that whenever we split up, or certain people went off alone, we'd be in contact with the two cell phones.

"Yeah?" He said into the receiver. "Mhm, we're on our way… The Hampton Inn? Do we have enough money for that?...Oh okay. Iggy might need to borrow that later, too. All right…Okay…Love you, too. Bye."

"The Hampton Inn?" I asked.

"Yep. Manhattan Chelsea."

"Where'd she get money?"

"Angel brought the credit card, after all. The one you thought you blew up?" I thought for a second.

"Oh, right, never mind. That was Dr. Martinez's license, that's right. I wonder if she ever found out," I mused.

"Anyway, we're walking, because it's, like, a block away."

"Okay." It didn't seem like a block, though; we took a few steps and suddenly we were walking into the cool, air-conditioned hotel.

"Dory's ready, in room 375," Fang informed me. I smiled without meaning to as we stepped into an elevator.

"Hey, stranger," I heard Max say as we stepped in. I was actually grateful that I was blind, for a second, when I heard this slobbering noise. Of course they had to start making out with me _right there_. I'm _blind_, I wanted to tell them. Not deaf.

But I couldn't even bring myself to be too agitated, because there was actually hope for me now. Maybe _I'd_ be the one making out in the elevator later…

A guy can dream.

"I missed you," Max whispered to Fang. Again, as if I wasn't a few feet away.

"I missed you, too."

"You know, our room has one bed…" Okay, that was enough.

"I'm right here!" I snapped. They laughed awkwardly.

"Sorry Ig," Max said, and they were quiet for the rest of the ride. All I could hear was the tacky elevator music.

"Okay, here's our floor," she announced. I felt something cold press into my palm. I toyed with it for a moment, identifying it as the credit card I thought I'd used in that one bomb.

Max and Fang let me to the room, and I felt the number on the door so that I wouldn't end up with Gazzy or something. The brail—yes, I learned brail back when we had to go to school—said 375, so I pulled back my hand…

"Wait—Fang, where's the flower?" He handed me the single rose I'd purchased earlier (yeah, one rose. I didn't have enough for a whole bouquet…hopefully she'd think it was romantic, not cheap). "Thanks. Any last minute pointers?"

"Well, my first date was interrupted by Flyboys…so, no. Just try not to die, and you'll be fine." Great advice, I thought, as I heard the door open.

"Hey Iggy," Dory murmured. She seemed so much more tentative than usual.

"Hi Dory. I got you a rose." I wished so badly that I could see her face.

"Aw, thanks! That's so sweet." I felt my cheeks redden. Damn this sudden shyness that's plaguing me.

I felt for her hand, and grasped it tight when I found it. Her skin was almost as pale as mine, and I wondered if her cheeks were as red. Probably not, but again, a guy can hope.

I have to say, it was pretty awkward as we stepped in the elevator and waited for it to go down. I'm not going to lie and say I went all Romeo and charmed the hell out of her. Honestly, I was totally lost. So, I asked her out, and made reservations, and got cash. But what now?

"You know…" I said, just to break the silence. "I bet you look amazing." Some blind guys might have been able to pull that line off, but I just sounded stupid.

"I'm not wearing any clothes," she informed me. Now, most people would be smart enough to realize that she was kidding. Not me.

"Seriously?" She laughed.

"Just kidding. Nice face, though. Hey look, you're blushing."

"That is so not fair. You're taking advantage of my disability."

"Oh, listen to you!"

"No, _you_ listen to me—no, wait, you can't!"

"That wasn't even funny."

"Neither was your 'no clothes' joke."

"Well, it shouldn't matter, right? Since you're gay anyway."

"I thought we went over this already!"

So we continued this joking banter (I couldn't decide if it was flirting or not) as we strolled through Manhattan, hand in hand. I have to say, it was pretty awesome. I flagged down a cab (because how am I supposed to know where the restaurant is?) and Dory helped me find it.

Luckily for me, the cab was pretty small, so she was practically on my lap. I told the driver where we were headed.

"How are you affording that?" Dory asked, baffled.

"Well, see, I'm kind of God?"

"What?"

"What?" I felt her shake her head.

"You're so obnoxious."

"You like it."

"I actually do." I beamed, delighted. I was just so darn _happy_. There were problems to be solved, yes, but right then, I couldn't worry about anything. It was just me, and Dory, and perfect blissfulness.

Now, you're probably wondering how I ended up clutching a door for dear life. Don't worry. I'll get to that.

**AN: Aren't I horrible? Heh heh, I had to end the chapter there, though, because it would be way to long if I didn't. **


	14. Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

**AN: My room is a library to my friends! Heh heh before my friends leave my house they're like, 'oh, can I borrow a book?' Anyway, here's chapter 14!**

Iggy's POV

This may surprise you, but this was the first time I'd been out in public without someone from the Flock. Actually, it was the first time I'd been _anywhere_ without someone from the Flock, I believe. Even when Max made me stay home that one time when she went to find Angel, Gazzy was with me. Or when we went to school, I was in Fang's class. It was a weird feeling, knowing that I couldn't just fly off if someone suspected danger. But I was too happy to suspect any danger, and that was mistake one.

When Fang and I had returned earlier, I was too excited to stop and take off my bandages, so my wing was still tied down, and that was mistake two.

Finally, when we got to the restaurant, I said I didn't care where we sat, so we winded up right next to the window, in plain view of anybody passing by, and that was mistake three.

"This place is so cool," Dory murmured after we ordered.

"Yeah," I agreed. "It…smells yummy." She laughed softly.

"I'm really glad you asked me out," she said, so quietly I wasn't sure if I'd heard her right.

"I'm really glad you said yes," I responded. "I just have one question."

"Yeah?" I took a breath, nervous. Here it was, the moment of truth.

"You really don't mind me being blind? Because, you know, I can't see what you look like and stuff…" She was quiet, and for a fleeting moment I thought I'd ruined everything.

"Did you seriously just ask that?" She asked. "Or did I read your lips wrong?"

"Um, I asked if you minded me being blind."

"My God, you've got to be kidding. Do you honestly believe that there's any chance in hell of me saying yes to that question?"

"Well, yeah…"

"Iggy, you're crazy. I'm nowhere near that shallow, I promise. I like you for who you are… And I've been watching way too much of the Hallmark Channel, don't you think?" I cracked a smile, suddenly jubilant all over again.

"Thanks," I said, grinning ear to ear.

"Yep. Do you—Oh my God." It wasn't the kind of _oh my God_ that you say when you spill something, or when you're really excited. She sounded…almost scared, which made me very, very nervous.

"What?"

"There are three guys over there, staring right at us."

"What's wrong with people staring at us?"

"Er, I'm sure it's just a coincidence. No problem." I could here the desperate lie in her voice.

"Dory, you're not telling me something."

"Well, they all look exactly alike…and they look exactly like that guy…"

"Oh yeah, that guy with the face? In that place?"

"The guy who broke your wing." My blood went cold, reliving that traumatic experience. I knew he was too strong to be human before, but duplicates? If that doesn't scream genetically engineered, I don't know what does.

"I can take him," I bluffed. I couldn't even take one, let alone three. And if they tried to get us, I couldn't get away very fast. I could sprint a little faster than the average human, but if these guys were as fast as they were strong, I doubt I could outrun them. Dory could, though. Hopefully she wouldn't get cornered…

"It won't come to that," she said, sounding so confident.

"Well, if it does, I can take them." Now is not the time to show off, I told myself. But I couldn't help it. Deep down, I just really wanted to impress her, despite the fact that it would probably get me killed.

"It doesn't look like they're going to come over here right now, so we should be fine."

"All right." The waiter was already at our table, and I had no idea what to order. I settled for a fajita, and Dory got a burrito. After a little bit, I'd somewhat forgotten about the wing-breakers. I was just full of mistakes tonight, huh?

"Check please," Dory suddenly called, her voice an octave higher than usual.

"We just started eating," I pointed out, having only taken two bites of my fajita.

"Trust me," she mumbled. The waiter must have arrived, because she was scribbling furiously. I pulled out the card and handed it to her without a word, knowing danger when I saw—no, heard—it.

"Be right back," she said. Her chair squeaked as she hastily stood up and strode over to the service desk. I waited, nervous, as she paid, hating that I-have-no-idea-what's-going-on feeling.

"Come on," she ordered moments later, grabbing my hand and yanking me out of my seat. "Run!" I didn't need eyes to know what was going on: those big dudes were chasing us, and I was slowing her down.

"Go to the hotel," I said, running as fast as I could.

"No! I'm not leaving you."

"Dory! You have to go tell the others! I'll fly." That was a lie, of course; I had only one free wing.

"No," she snapped stubbornly. I clutched her wrist, and hoped I was looking into her eyes.

"You…don't…understand," I said through my teeth between gasps. I doubted that I'd ever run so fast. "You're way…faster than me. You can get….to the hotel….faster, and tell….Max and AJ….to get away. If these…guys get…a hold of me…. you guys can…come get me. What's the….worst they could do…break my other wing?"

"No, they could break your God-damned neck!" I love how she didn't even seem to be breaking a sweat.

"Go!"

"If they hurt you, I swear to God."

"If you get…hurt because of me…I swear to God."

"Fine. Just try not to get yourself killed," she muttered before taking off. I remembered distantly Fang saying the same thing earlier, in different context. Maybe the whole getting attacked on your first date situation was just a bird-kid thing.

I slid out of my jacket, dropping it on the sidewalk. I'm such a saint, clothing the homeless. I considered taking off my shoes, too, but I'd probably end up with some yucky fungus. Or tetanus.

I could hear the heavy, thudding footsteps gaining on me, and the fact that I could sent shivers up my spine. I remembered someone telling me once—or maybe it was on TV?—that if you couldn't be faster, than you had to be smarter. Be smart, Ig, be smart.

I smashed into a countless number of people, shoving them forcefully out of my way, muttering apologies as I went.

The footsteps were right behind me now, and I felt like screaming. Why won't anybody ever give me a break? What did I do to deserve this? I hung a sharp left, realizing only after that I was dashing into the street.

"DON'T RUN ME OVER!" I shouted as I ran, hopping over a parked car. I have to say, I've always wanted to do that. It made me feel pretty badass. I just kept running until I reached a glass door, which I pushed open which such force that I half expected it to shatter.

"Welcome to the Marriot," someone tiredly said as I walked in, but I ignored her, feeling around frantically for the stairs. When I found them, I wasted no time, darting up as fast as my body would allow. Be smart…

The door in front of me opened, and I almost collided with the person who was stepping out of their room.

"Can I borrow your room?" I asked breathlessly.

"Um, no?" Desperate, I shoved him aside and stepped into the room, slamming the door shut behind me and locking the deadbolt. It was a matter of time before maintenance came up to yell at me—possibly arrest me—and I had to think fast.

I whipped off my shirt and started tearing vigorously at the tape on my torso. It came off in small pieces and fragments, the adhesive sticking under my nails. I needed something sharp.

Feeling around the room, I found a cheap plastic pen, and that was the best I could find. I squeezed the pen under the bandages and pushed with brute force.

"Come off you fucking tape," I muttered over and over again, sweat dripping down my forehead and off my nose. I pushed with my bad wing, but it didn't do anything. Stunning pain zipped through me, notifying me that my wing hadn't completely healed yet. It would have to do. If it couldn't support me…well then I'd be squashed like a fly on the Manhattan street.

I heard the heavy footsteps pounding up the stairs. Then the sound of wood splitting, distantly. I realized with terror what they were doing: smashing open every door until they found me. And this room wasn't very far down the hall.

Curses poured from my mouth as I picked and pried at the bandages. Why wouldn't they just simply come off?

The pen snapped under the pressure I'd been applying to it, and ink oozed down my stomach. Lovely, I thought, throwing it across the room.

I kept prying and pushing, pushing and prying…

The footsteps were getting closer…

Nudge's phone, ever-present in my pocket, vibrated, but I had no time to answer it…

I felt like I was in a horror movie, bracing myself for the monsters that would suddenly pop out. Unless I could get this tape off in seconds, I was completely powerless. I didn't stand a chance.

I was nowhere near finished when a heavy blow was driven into my door, the sound of cracking wood echoing in my ears.

•••

Max's POV

"Where's Iggy?" I demanded when Dory rushed into our room. She had with her AJ, Damian, and everybody else.

"They're _back_?" Think Max, think. First thing's first: we had to find Iggy.

"How come you left him?" I snapped, furious.

"He told me to! It was the only way!"

"If he told you to jump off a bridge—" I began, but stopped myself when I realized how motherly I sounded. "Never mind; we don't have time for this. Somebody call him," I ordered as everybody crowded around my doorway.

"Why are they going after Iggy?" I muttered to myself as we made our way out of the hotel.

_You are to valuable to sacrifice_, the Voice charmed in. Funny how it always knows what to say to piss me off the most.

_And Iggy's not?_ I snarled mentally, but of course it didn't answer directly. Of course.

_You didn't listen._

_I don't do what people tell me to! Haven't you learned that by now?_

_You need to learn to cooperate, Maximum. Only then will your Flock be safe. _

_Fuck you_. My fists clenched, I stepped out of the hotel…And had no idea where to go.

"No answer," Nellie informed me. Damn. Where would I look? He could be anywhere. I pressed my fingers to my temples, trying to think.

"This is all my fault," I mumbled.

"No it's not," Fang told me.

"Yes it is."

"No, Max, it's not." This could go on forever, so I just shook my head and kept trying to think. Where could he be?

"Split up," I commanded. "Look everywhere. Meet back here in…fifteen minutes, give or take." It was no help. We were just running around aimlessly, and it was probably already too late.

_I hate you_, I growled to whoever the Voice was. And I meant it.

•••

Iggy's POV

I hope you think of me next time your Mom tells you that you can't go out with friends and you shout, "I HATE MY LIFE!" Because no matter what superficial drama normal teenagers have to face, it's nothing compared to my life lately.

But I couldn't give up just yet. At some point, in the midst of my yanking and prying, my wing had gotten free. Now I had to figure out how to get across the room and out the window, and pray that I didn't die. Not hard, right? Wrong.

The wood split behind my back, the impact of the punches hitting me, knocking the wind out of me. I felt around at the table next to me and found a coffee maker. Hopefully this would do.

I took a deep breath…

And I sprinted across the room and chucked the coffee maker where I expected the window to be with adrenaline absolutely propelling through my veins.

The next moment, several things happened:

A) The window shattered, some stray shards of glass stabbing into my stomach, arms, legs, and even one on my face. The noise was deafening, and the pain was biting, but it was nothing I couldn't handle.

B) The door basically exploded. There was a thicker cracking noise from behind me as the three 'men' stumbled in.

C) I wailed. I refuse to say I screamed. But I did yell really loud. Hey, there was a high possibility that I was about to die, don't hold this against me.

So, _yelling really loud_ (not screaming) I jumped through the broken window and unfurled my wings.

And that's about when I realized that my wing hadn't healed at all, not one bit.

**AN: Muahahahahaha…Sorry about the cliffhanger again, but it was just too good of an opportunity. Like when someone's perched on the edge of a pool with their back to you…it's like they're just waiting to be pushed in. Bad analogy… oh well. **


	15. Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

**AN: Hey, sorry if this is a little later than usual—especially since I left you hanging! My parents work the soccer registration, so the computers are being totally hogged this week. Plus, I screwed up my left wrist at soccer, and my herniated/torn discs in my back make my right hand screwed up (don't ask…) so typing is slow-going. Maybe I'll hire an Oompa Loompa to type for me…I'll name him Fabio.**

Iggy's POV

The small yelp of pain that escaped my lips was nothing compared to the scream of agony that I was repressing. It hurt more than anything I'd ever felt, even that time when one of my explosives went off in my face. It hurt more than when it was first broken, even, because now it had wind under it, pushing it in every direction.

Trying to ignore the splitting pain (impossible), I spread out my arms and legs, doing anything to buffer the fall. My left wing pumped furiously, but my right just flailed limply, totally useless.

I had a huge head-rush, and it occurred to me that I was spinning violently. I guess that's what happens when you only have one wing.

Nothing was working. I couldn't aim myself up, or right or left or anywhere. For all I knew, I could be spiraling toward the ground right now. Actually, I probably was.

That's when it really hit me: I was going to _die_. I was going to die, despite the fact that two separate people had told me not to. I was going to die, because I jumped out of a window with a broken wing. So much for being smart. I was going to die.

I wondered if it would hurt, more than my wing was hurting right now. Or maybe I just wouldn't feel anything. Maybe the second I hit the ground, I was just going to float into blissfulness.

Unable to contain it any more, I bellowed, "I'M GOING TO FREAKING DIIIIIIIE!"

Suddenly, just as I got through shouting that, both of my arms were jerked upward, like I was a puppet. I hardly felt the pain in my arms, distracted by the more throbbing pain in my wings. I was too shocked to be concerned at what was going on.

"Not right now you don't," Max muttered from my left. Someone else was grasping my right arm, and I guessed it was Fang.

"Hmm?" You could say I wasn't completely coherent. Near-death experiences can do that to you.

"Ig, you look like hell." I could imagine what everyone was seeing: chunks of tape glued to my chest, dried ink smeared across my stomach, legs, and hands, blood everywhere, shards of glass clinging to me like leaches, and I was probably sweating my ass off too. So saying I looked like hell probably wasn't much of an overstatement.

"Feel like it, too," I grumbled when I could find my voice. My wing was still excruciating, and all I wanted to do was lie down somewhere and take a really long nap. Or maybe knock myself out with sleeping pills.

As soon as my feet touched the ground and I was released, I toppled over and conked out.

•••

Dory just stared at the bloody mess that was Iggy. She couldn't believe her eyes when she saw him flailing through the air, almost vomited. She should have never taken off, never left him to fend for himself.

The fragments of medical tape scattered around his stomach and wing revealed to her that his wing wasn't even un-taped when she left him. Why did he tell her that he could fly? Clearly, he was in no shape to.

Dory just wanted to explode something. She wanted to give those big dumb idiots hell. Wanted to make them pay.

Who in the world were they, anyway? She could tell that they were modified, but how? Were they elephant-humans? Did they have hippo DNA? Or maybe…maybe they had more than one species of animal DNA grafted with theirs. Like, gorilla-panther-humans. Was that possible?

Dory shook her head, still dumbfounded. He'd been seconds away from dieing. She saw the whole thing, from the second the window shattered and Iggy jumped out. Watched helplessly as he thrashed and spun, one wing poking out at the wrong angles.

But at least he's alive, she thought to herself. He's alive and breathing. And snoring.

She couldn't help but note how vulnerable he looked, sprawled out on the sidewalk in a heap.

She knew that AJ and Max and everyone were discussing plans, but she didn't bother to glance over and read their lips. She was suddenly exhausted, too. Just as she was about to doze off herself, she noticed with horror the three thugs marching across the street. See, as a unit, they probably would have been able to take these three. But then she noticed three more coming diagonally from the right, and three more from the left. They wouldn't be able to take them all.

"Guys!" She shouted.

_Why hello impending doom_, she thought snidely as they picked up Iggy and took off. _It's been so long_.

•••

Iggy's POV

The first thought I had when I woke up was _ouch_. Everything hurt, from my head to my toes. I couldn't be sure where I was, or what in the world had happened, but I knew that I was in severe pain.

Biting my lip to keep from shrieking, I ran my fingers over the surface I was laying on. It was smooth, linen. Light brown.

_Ahh_—I had the sudden sensation that I was on fire. Thrashing around like so was not the best idea, apparently, because the next thing I knew I'd fallen and was face down on the ground.

"Ahhh," I moaned, unable to move.

"Easy Ig," Max said from somewhere above me.

"Where am I, and how come everything hurts?"

"Well, you're on the floor of a hotel somewhere in Maryland, and everything hurts because you jumped out of a window with a broken wing and almost died." Oh, right. _Now_ I remember. Silly me, how could I forget?

"How long was I out?"

"All night. It's about noon now." Through all of my pain, I somehow noticed that I was _really_ hungry. Well, I hadn't eaten since those two bites of fajita…

"We got room service," Max told me, and I struggled to stand up. I felt as though I was standing on stilts, my balance way out of proportion, and ready to collapse at any second. As soon as I sat down on what I presumed to be the bed, I was handed a platter of food, which I devoured without a word.

"More?" I asked with a full mouth, my fork scraping at an empty tray.

"We're going to some pizza place for lunch. You might want to go take a shower or something." Great, I thought, I only have one shirt left. And it was white.

I stepped in the shower and scrubbed extensively at my stomach, which was still deep blue with ink. From what I could feel, someone had plucked most of the glass out of me, but I still had dry blood crusted in my hair, arms, chest, etc. The tape left a gooey residue, even with the pre-wrap, which felt sludgy under the water. Gross. I took the longest shower I'd ever taken, but when I got out I could still feel several faint blue spots on my torso. God, I hoped I didn't have ink poisoning. What is that, anyway?

I still probably looked like I'd been but through a wood-chipper (disturbing analogy) but at least now I was a little bit cleaner. The cuts would most likely be scars by tomorrow.

I could sense that there were a lot of people jammed into our room when I walked out of the bathroom. People were randomly chatting with each other, and I heard a bit of a conversation between Nudge and Else regarding Else's job. That was one of those oh-gosh-I-really-didn't-need-to-hear-that moments.

"Wow, Iggy, I'm impressed. Only an hour and a half long shower?" Dory smirked as I entered the main room.

"Yeah, it's a new personal record."

"If I collapse with starvation, it's your fault."

"I'm sorry. Would you rather be seen in public with me looking the way I did earlier, though?"

"Personally, I thought you looked pretty hot." I laughed.

"Oh yeah. Was it the puddle of ink or the bits of medical tape that turned you on?"

"Hmm, I'd have to say the splotches of blood. Yum." I chuckled again, feeling her hand slip into mine. "Seriously, though, are you okay?"

"Of course. When I start to talk about my hotness, that's when you know I'm fine." Now it was her turn to cackle.

"Nah, you'll be talking about your hotness on your death-bed." I arched an eyebrow.

"So you admit that I have hotness?"

"Didn't we go over this already? How your crusty blood turns me on?"

"What are you, Dracula?"

"Oh yes. I vant to suck yer blood." I pretended to be disgusted.

"That's just disturbing, Dory. You might want to get help for that."

"Hmm, yeah, I'm more of a werewolf, aren't I?"

Before I could reply, the whole room was silenced by Max shouting, "WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP?" There was an awkward silence, and then she laughed uncomfortably and said, "Oh, not you guys….Who wants pizza?"

•••

Max's POV

Okay, so this God-forsaken Voice of mine just wouldn't leave me alone. It's worse now than ever, because now it's trying to turn me into some self-loathing martyr. First it tells me to stop looking for Fang—yeah right—and then it tells me that because I didn't, my Flock is going to pay. I'm starting to really distrust this Voice. Anything working on my side wouldn't cause this kind of harm.

I kept a close watch over my Flock, and the Pack, and even Else, the random worthless stripper. Okay, that was mean. Just because she's the Red Haired Wonder's sister doesn't mean she's trying to steal Fang.

By some miracle, we were able to enjoy our lunch without being attacked, stalked, _or_ assaulted. All be darn!

I watched contently as everybody devoured their pizza, chatting and laughing and being happy. And the Voice wanted me to wreck _this_? Was it crazy? Well, I mean, aside from being a voice in my head and all.

Fang's arm was wrapped comfortingly around my waist as I wolfed down my meal. He'd been as quiet as usual since we'd been reunited, but sometimes he'd randomly mumbled an 'I love you' or 'you look beautiful', causing my heart to soar. There was no way in the world I'd give this up—I wasn't that selfless. And as for havoc being brought upon my Flock because of it? Well, we were used to that. Honestly, uneventful life had been getting kind of boring.

I know that eventually I'm going to eat my own words. In fact, I'll probably hate myself for saying that in a few weeks—or even days. But for now, I just wanted to enjoy this situation—us all being happy and together. Is that too much to ask? I guess in my life it actually is.

**AN: See, no cliff-hanger! Aren't I nice? You know, the great thing about helping out with soccer-club work is that you get to keep all the cool paper-clips. (Pathetic sentence^) **


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

**AN: So, this chapter is a little short for my taste, and I apologize. Yesterday was deadline, crazy soccer-club work day here, and I had to file applications from the time I woke up to 6:45, only taking breaks to serve my little Napoleon brothers with milk, chips, bathwater etc. So you could say I've been a little busy, but at least I got the chapter up! I'm going on a 2-week vacation in a few weeks, and I'm not sure what the internet situation will be, so I'm going to try to crank out a bunch of chapters before I leave. And this AN is getting to be longer than the chapter so I'm ending it now…**

There was something next to Dory's head when she woke up the next morning. She was sharing a room with Nudge, Nellie, and Else (because she was the only one who could stomach their obnoxious chatter, since she couldn't hear it) and hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night. Every time she started to drift off, something kept her up. I.e. a pillow at the head, someone jumping on her bed, and someone even tried to write on her face.

So when she noticed a crumpled sheet of paper next to her face, she assumed it was just another one of the girls' antics. But she picked it up, anyway, her curiosity getting the better of her.

It was a page ripped out of a coloring book, but someone had cut along the edges with those fancy, patterned scissors to make it look cute. The drawing was a dancing elephant in a ballerina costume, but it wasn't colored in. Well, except for its feet, which were wearing ballerina slippers.

For a while, she just gazed at the picture, trying to guess why and how it was there. How was a dancing elephant relevant to her life?

Her gaze shifted downward, and that's when she noticed something written in blue crayon at the bottom of the page: _-Iggy_.

Then she grinned, remembering. Where he'd gotten the picture, she had no idea. How he'd colored in the lines, she had no idea. But now she knew why, at least.

_Elephant shoes. _

•••

Iggy's POV

"So, I got your picture." I beamed. I'd gotten the idea during lunch yesterday, and had Nudge and Angel help me put it all together. I'd originally intended to use a picture from a magazine, but sadly I couldn't find a magazine with pictures of shoe-wearing elephants. A shame, I know. So I asked Angel, and luckily she'd had a coloring book in her backpack. I didn't trust her so much, so I had Nudge help me color it, and then slip it onto Dory's bed. Aren't I crafty?

I'd been nervous all morning that I'd been too vague, that she had no idea what I was talking about. Or that she'd think I was weird, or creepy, or stalker-ish, or all of the above. I woke up really early and couldn't fall back to sleep, so I just sat in bed all jittery and anxious. But now, she was standing in my doorway.

"And…?"

"And, elephant shoes too," she smirked. Just as I'd expected.

"I think you read something wrong," I said slowly, my pulse quickening. My heart was in my throat, thudding so loudly I was sure she could hear it. This is it, _this_ _is_ _it_. I'm really going to do it, I told myself. Really. "Because this time, I meant—"

"IGGY! DORY! EVACUATE THE BUILDING!" Huh, funny how as soon as I was interrupted by this, murdering Gazzy was suddenly bumped up on my to-do list. _Damn it_.

"Gazzy," I said through gritted teeth, to keep from screaming at him. "What the hell is going on?"

"Well, remember that bomb we made a few months ago? The _Abuela Joven_?" Okay, so no matter how pissed I was, I couldn't help but get a tad excited. We'd asked Dr. Martinez how to say 'young grandma' in Spanish (don't ask) and it was this bomb that could fit into a pocket…

"Yes?"

"Well, I was showing it to Fuzz, and I _accidentally_ flipped the trigger, and it was right by the bed, and it caught on fire, and you need to _run_! Maaaaaaax!" Now I was back to being full-out pissed.

"You didn't save it for me? _Gazzy_!" Dory found my hand like she always does, and the next thing I knew we were running out of the hotel, the rest of the Flock and Pack (and Else) right on our heels.

As I ran, I thought of all the ways I could destroy the Gasman. Let's see, I could poison him in his sleep, but that would be too easy. Maybe I'll contact those Afghanistan people and ask them how to slip a bomb in his underwear like that terrorist did. Ooh, and I'd make it gas-activated…

"Hey Ig?"

"Yeah?"

"How come you look like you want to break something?" I smiled wryly.

"The only thing I want to break is Gazzy's neck," I replied casually, like having homicidal thoughts was the norm.

"Hostile, much?"

"Hey, it took me forever to perfect that bomb, and he totally wasted it." _And, I was about to tell you something _very_ important before he torched the freaking hotel_.

"Yeah, I'd be pissed too." You know, it was almost unfathomable how cool she was. Most girls would be like_, you like to blow shit up? That's weird_. But she's more like, _me too!_ And she actually laughed when I told a joke, understood my sarcastic sense of humor. Because she had the same kind.

That's why I love her. Yeah, for those of you who haven't caught on yet, that was what I was going to tell her before Gazzy so rudely interrupted. And you know what sucks? Heaven knows when I'll ever get the balls to do it again.

•••

Max's POV

It would have been nice to chill out there, in Maryland, for a little while longer, but it didn't really faze me much that we couldn't. See, there were two places that we needed to stop: the last safe-house to gather our belongings, maybe stay a few nights if it wasn't infested with those thug-things, and my mom's house. I thought she should take a look at Iggy's wing.

I was worried about my mom, though. The last thing I wanted to do was lead those brutes to her house. She'd already been kidnapped once, after all.

I figured the best thing to do was go to the safe-house and play it by ear. Now that I knew we had the credit card (nice of Angel to hold back that information) we could hop on an airplane, rather than endanger Iggy's life again.

His wing was even worse now. His subconscious groaning kept me and Fang up for the past two nights. If I'm cranky, blame it on him. Well, actually no, blame it on the brute-thug-beast-whatchamacallits.

We boarded a flight to Atlanta, which would connect to one in Denver, which was closest to the house. It was one of those small planes with two seats on one side and one on the left. The three couples (me and Fang, AJ and Damian, Iggy and Dory) as well as Nudge and Nellie managed to snag the doubles. Else sat across from Nudge and Nellie, Gazzy sat across from Iggy and Dory, Fuzz sat across from AJ and Damian, Angel sat across from us, and Gabriel sat in front of her.

I waited patiently as several strangers filed in, lightly murmuring with one and other. Fang's arm was wrapped securely around my waist, a blissful comfort. I felt calm and peaceful, finally.

Then, right on cue (because it was just such a sin for me to be at ease) the tiny hairs on the back of my neck pricked up, and I knew something was wrong. I stiffened, surveying the small plane.

"Max, you okay?" Fang asked quietly. I nodded absently. Something touched my shoulder, and I jumped a few feet in the air.

"Shh, Max, it's just me," AJ whispered. I turned around in my seat, alarmed at the sharp edge to her voice.

"What's wrong?"

"Hell, at 11 o'clock." I slowly turned…

And came to the sudden realization that I had to get off the flight _immediately_. But I was just a minute too late, because we were already taking off. The stewardess was talking so tranquilly, like our lives weren't at stake here.

I've had showdowns in a number of places. Cities, houses, castles, the middle of nowhere. However, never in my life have I had one in a plane. Staring at the 5 brutes sitting in the front of the plane, I had a horrible feeling that they wanted to change that.

My, this was going to be an interesting flight.


	17. Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

**AN: My friend says I have the attention span of a monkey, but I disagree. I just see and here things that remind me of other things and feel the need to let others know. Is that so bad? Let me know what you think of this chapter…**

Iggy's POV

When Dory told me that the guys who broke my wing and almost killed me were on the flight, I admit I almost cried. Yeah, big strong Iggy almost broke down sobbing like a baby. I'm not perfect, never said I was. But considering the girl I loved was sitting right next to me, I bit it back. I had to hold onto what dignity I had left.

"Shit, fuck, damn," I muttered over and over again, until Dory placed her tiny hand on me chest.

"Shh, Ig, it'll be fine."

"No it won't," I mumbled. "They did this on purpose. They know my wing's broken, so when we're forced out of the plane I won't be able to fly. And with one Flock member down, there's no way the rest can carry all of your Pack _and_ me. But they know they'll try, and we'll all die." I wasn't expecting what happened next. A lot of shit has happened, but I never predicted this.

She freaking _slapped_ me. Across the cheek, like they do in the movies. Only, unlike the movies, she has super-human strength and practically whacked my jaw off.

"What the hell?" She snapped, and I felt like saying the same thing.

"Sorry, I would respond to that, but I've got to snap my jaw back into place first."

"Shut up. I'm _pissed_, Iggy. How can you talk like that?"

"I'm just being practical."

"No, you're being a pessimist."

"You see a way to survive this? Go ahead and tell me. I'm all ears."

"You're being such an ass!" You know, that kind of stung a little. That's the last thing I wanted to hear from her. Was I really being an ass, though? I didn't think so.

"That's a little harsh," I grumbled.

"Remember the first day I met you, when I came to get you for dinner?" She asked quietly, changing the topic drastically. Actually, I did remember that. I was pissed for being blind and not being able to see her. Then, I thought she was Max at first and said, 'Go away Max. I'd rather not listen to dish out your lies in a desperate attempt to make me feel better.' And then Dory said, 'I don't lie. And it's time for dinner.'

"Yeah," I said slowly, confused.

"I told you I don't lie. And I wasn't lying." Oh, so did that mean that I really was being an ass…?

"I believe you."

"And I'm not lying when I say that nobody is going to die on this plane."

"Right, because we're going to die once we jump off." She slapped me again, but not as hard.

"Listen. We're built for falling big distances, and landing. It's one of our abilities. As long as we're in the right position, and we keep running once we hit, we won't get a scratch, or a bruise or anything."

"We're in a plane, Dory."

"No shit. I've done it before." That was either total BS, or really sick. But since she said she didn't lie…

"When?" I questioned suspiciously.

"A few years ago. AJ even had Gabriel on her back, and she still landed perfectly."

"You better not be bluffing."

"I'm not. I'm totally serious. I know you can't see, but I'm looking you in the eye right now." I grinned, wondering what her eyes looked like. Nudge told me they were emerald green. I loved the feeling of green; it was so calming to the touch…

"I lo—"

"Get up!" Max shouted from a few seats back. Shit. We were being attacked, but I hardly had time to comprehend that, because I just realized that I almost blurted out 'I love you'. Just randomly here, on the middle of this plane-ride. I wanted to thank Max for saving me from that—it had to be romantic, you know?

I was too busy musing over this, and didn't realize that someone was coming after me, until he'd already knocked me to the ground.

From there, it was just an epic battle.

•••

Max's POV

It was clear from the start that we would not win the battle. There were just too many. That didn't stop us from fighting anyway, though.

Fang was to my left, and AJ was back-to-back with me. We'd all moved to the aisle and the small space by the front to fight, and I was feeling awfully claustrophobic.

I clenched my fists and drove them into the gut of my attacker, but if it caused him pain, he didn't show it. I jumped up onto the armrest of one of the seats, and from there onto the beast's shoulders. I wrapped my legs around his throat and squeezed, hard. Fang was repeatedly kicking him in the groin, so he was unable to divert all his energy to bucking me off.

Suddenly, he seized Fang by the neck. His one enormous hand easily wrapped around Fang's neck, and one squeeze was probably all it would take.

"NO!" I screamed, leaping from his shoulders and driving my feet into his elbow-joints. Both he and Fang fell, gasping. But now he knew my weakness.

I quickly glanced around. We wouldn't all fit through the tiny emergency exit at once, I knew that. Maybe Else's nails were strong enough to cut through the metal? We'd only jump if we really, desperately had to.

Then I noticed the normal people, huddled in the back. There was a family of a mom, a dad, a baby and a little girl. A boy a little younger than me was standing all alone. An elderly woman had passed out, and a man I presumed to be her husband was standing over her. A teenage couple was holding each other, the girl crying. I noticed, as she pulled back, that the girl was pregnant.

All those people. They all had lives, and families, and stories. They'd all be missed. I couldn't save them all.

_This is the price, Maximum_. My blood went cold.

_Why would you do this, Voice?_ I cried mentally. But it didn't answer me. I realized it all at once: the Voice was a bloodthirsty murderer. There was a murderer in my head.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

•••

Iggy's POV

Dory, Gazzy and I teamed up on the one who'd knocked me over. Everything was so loud, standing in stunning contrast to the usual plane-ride. The pilot and stewardesses were probably freaking out…unless, of course, they were teamed up with the brutes. That's what I'm going to call them from now on, okay? Brutes. It's easier to say then 'God Forsaken Scum of the Earth's.

As I dug my elbow into his shoulder and kneed him where it counts, I became aware of something: screaming. A baby screaming. There were other people on this plane; normal, innocent people. And all because of me, there was a high possibility that they were going to die.

I fought absently, but all I could here was the crying. "MAAMAAAAA! MAMAAA!" The kid sounded no older than one or two, absolutely hysterical.

"Shh, shh," its mother murmured. "It's going to be all right." But even the baby could probably hear the false note in her assurance. She knew it would most definitely not be okay.

"Daddy!" A small voice squealed. "Daddy, make it stop! I'm scared!"

"We're almost there, Jess, don't worry," the dad managed. There weren't many people on the plane, but it was still too much. I guessed that there were at least ten or so.

"Watch it Ig!" Gazzy cried, and I realized I'd accidentally elbowed him in my frantic fight.

"Sorry Gaz!"

"Watch out Iggy!" Dory shouted. I ducked instinctively, and listened as something whizzed over my head. I got up quick and caught the Brute off-guard, slamming into him with all my weight. He fell back, onto a seat, and I heard something snap beneath his weight.

That's when I smelled it: smoke. I listened very carefully, tuning out the crying, the grunting, the wheezing…

And beneath it all, I heard the soft crackling of fire. They'd lit the fucking plane on fire.

"Get over here, Iggy," Max called. I followed her voice, more scared than I'd been in a while. But not for me.

"We're jumping," she told me. "The Pack can land. Nudge has Else. Fang and I will fly you." Else sliced a hole in the side of the plane with her super-nails, and I felt the wind and rain pelting my skin. Just as I was about to jump, I remembered the normal people, still freaking out. Even the dad was screaming. Everybody was.

"GET THEM!" I shouted to Max over it all.

"We can't get them all!" She shouted back. I couldn't help it, my blind eyes started filling with tears.

"YOU HAVE TO!" I screamed. "LEAVE ME AND GET THEM! I'LL MAKE IT!" I had one wing, at least. They had nothing. They were going to die. Because of me.

If my wing wasn't broken, we wouldn't be on this plane. If we weren't on this plane, those people would be fine. But we were. And they were doomed.

"YOU CAN'T FLY YOU IDIOT!" That was Dory. I half expected her to slap me again.

"EVERYBODY GET SOMEBODY!" I bellowed. The screaming was right under me now. I felt something grabbing at my leg…and then it was gone.

"_AIDAN! MY BABY!_" The blood-curling scream was from the mom from before. I realized what had happened: the baby had fallen out. Again: my fault.

Sometimes we do things without thinking. But sometimes we just don't have time to think. Thinking wasn't going to save the kid. So, I jumped and popped out my wings.

I know what you're thinking: _Damn, Iggy, you never learn_. But that's not true. I _knew_ that I'd all but committed suicide. But there are things that we just have to do, despite the risks. The kid, Aidan, had only seen a year or two. I wasn't about to let that be taken away from him. He was just an innocent little child. If he died, it was all on me. I couldn't live with that.

I don't cry much. It takes away from my image. But there are times when I just can't help it. So now, I raced after the sound of the screaming, with tears streaming quickly down my cheeks, disregarding the stabbing, stunning agony. Because that wasn't the only pain I was in.

You know, this spiraling to my death thing is really getting old.

**AN: Good? Bad? I'm not review-hungry or anything, but I was kind of unsure on this one. And as for those of you who've been reviewing, I have this whole thank-you speech that I'm saving for the last chapter, whenever that turns out to be. Don't worry…:]. **


	18. Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

**AN: Complementing people=people passing to you more=you playing better= people complementing you=happiness=mushy gushy chapters for Fanfiction. Beware :] **

There were a lot of thoughts on my mind, obviously. One of them was, _please don't come 'save me'_. There simply wasn't any time for me to be saved. More important issues were at hand. I could only cross my fingers and hope that the other people were being saved right now.

Another thing running through my head was, _don't die Dory_. Terribly cliché, I know. But in all honesty, that was one of the more prominent thoughts on my mind. Because if Dory died…That was just unthinkable. Of course, I was worried about everybody, but she was just so tiny, and amazing…

I'm not perfect, so of course I was also thinking, _damn that freaking hurts_!

The dominating thought, though, was obviously the one concerning the little screaming baby. Aidan. I don't know why, but it seemed even _more_ important now that I knew his name. He wasn't just _the kid_. He was Aidan.

"!" The shrieking was getting louder. I hoped he was spreading his arms and legs, increasing his surface area, increasing his air resistance. That would help. Maybe. Gazzy and I looked up a bunch of physics stuff online once for one of our projects.

Each second he fell, his downward velocity was being increased by 9.8 m/s. Don't ask how I remember that, let alone care about it at a time like this. What can I say? I'm a sponge, I absorb information.

"AAAAAH!" Cried Aidan, closer now. I noted absently that I was drenched and freezing. Despite what you may think, I'm most definitely not Superman, and I do, in fact, get cold and hurt. I'm not invincible.

Up here, in the clouds, the oxygen was thin, and it hurt to breath. My lungs felt small, almost non-existent. Shrunken. The wind went right through my thin shirt, my loose jeans. My throbbing wing, my pounding head, my shivering body…it was all too much.

In a fit of rage—rage on the world, on myself—I pushed with everything I had. I forced my un-forcible wing, surging myself forward. I screamed in pain, unable to help myself. Screw my image—that didn't matter anymore. Right now, I just had to get Aidan and myself to safety. That was the task.

Without any warning, I suddenly collided with a small object. Before he could bounce off my abs of steel (God, I can't believe I seriously just thought that) I whipped my hands out and cradled him to my chest. That's about when I realized that he wasn't crying anymore. He wasn't doing _anything_.

"NO!" I screamed. "That's _not_ going to happen!" I pumped both my wings once more, this time to keep us from crashing to the ground. I was sobbing huge, loud, gut-wrenching sobs—like Nudge when she finished reading _My Sister's Keeper_. The torturous pain was only a small reason why. I think we both know the big reason.

I killed it. I killed the baby. No—I killed _Aidan_. He never had a chance. He never had a Hallmark Moment, or an Oh Shit Moment, or a Blonde Moment. He never had a best friend. He never fell in love. Hell, I bet he probably never even experienced ice cream!

I took it all away. I took away his life, his chance. I stole it. And his parents? I took away their baby. I took away a son, a nephew, probably a brother, even. I was a monster.

I was so preoccupied with weeping like a big winged monster loser that I didn't even realize the laughing. The giggling. It was coming from the baby.

He just almost died, and he was fucking giggling.

"You think that's funny?" I shouted, several emotions playing across my brain. And because my volatile fury was so contrasting to his innocent, youthful laughter, I found a chuckle escaping my lips, too. In the midst of everything, this little kid and I were sitting here and having a laugh. I had to get a grip—I was seriously losing it.

"Ig, fly straight down!" Max shouted at me, her voice just an echo. I slowly, carefully aimed myself downward, gripping the kid so tightly he'd probably have bruises. I was still crying, because my emotions just wouldn't control themselves.

That's when it hit me.

I did it. I…_I did it! _I saved the kid. Nobody came after me, meaning their hands were full with the other passengers. _Please_, I thought, looking up sightlessly. _God, if you're real, let those innocent people live_. _I promise I'll never explode anything again. Um, well, anything that's not mine. Or Gazzy's. Or, er, anybody in the Flock's. I _promise.

I dropped to my knees as soon as I hit the ground, still clutching the tiny body with everything I had.

"Aidan! Aidan, honey, Mommy's here!" He was crying again, and so was I, as his mom rushed over to us. Meaning, she _lived_.

"," she murmured to me over and over again. I handed her son to her, so carefully, like he would fall apart the minute he left my arms. I should have probably mentioned that this whole thing was because of me in the first place, but my throat was all swelled up, and I couldn't pipe out a word.

I almost killed this family…

But I saved it, too.

Oh God, I hoped their whole family was saved. What if it wasn't? She shouldn't be thanking me…

"I don't know…if I can ever…thank you enough," the mom said between sobs. I tried to blink, but my eyes were stinging too much. When was the last time I cried like this? Well, never. When was the last time I cried at all?

"No problem," I managed quietly. I heard heavy footsteps—not Brute heavy, but full-grown man heavy—rushing over. _The father_, I imagined, slowly rising. I had to find Dory. Only then would I be truly relieved.

I wasn't sobbing anymore, but I couldn't be sure if I was still crying at all or not. From my face to my toes, everything felt numb. My ears were ringing, my eyes stapled open. Unsure where to go from there, I just stood there, motionless.

After a few seconds, I heard those familiar, light and tentative footsteps coming toward me slowly. And then running.

She almost knocked me over when she slammed into me, somehow managing to wrap her tiny arms all the way around me, burying her head into my chest. Slowly, I lifted my arms and squeezed her tight.

"It's okay Iggy," she whispered. "It's over. You did it."

"I thought I killed it. But I didn't." I'm such a smooth talker.

"You saved it. You saved everybody. You're…well, would it be cliché if I told you that you were my hero?" I smiled, and that made me happy. It's a good sign when, in spite of everything, you can still find yourself smiling at the end of the day.

"Nah. It would be just what I needed to hear." There were a million things that I wanted to say, but I just couldn't spit them out. It seemed right to just stand there, holding each other, for a little bit. We could discuss later; for now, I needed just this.

"You're shaking," she whispered after a few minutes. I felt her tip her head up to look at my response.

"It's cold." Really, I hadn't realized I was shaking. But now that she pointed it out, I couldn't stop anyway. Oh well. Her arms constricted even tighter, and I could hardly breathe. But I didn't mind; it actually felt good.

"This is going to sound awful," she breathed, "but don't _ever_ do that again."

"Did it worry you?"

"Worry me? I was ready to _vomit_. If I didn't have that little girl on my back, I would have tried to get you…"

"Why?"

"Why do you think? Wouldn't _you_ save _me_?"

"Duh."

"Exactly."

"I'd save you, because I love you." Oh my God. Shit. Wow. I really just said it, didn't I? Wow. That was _so_ not romantic. Or maybe…Maybe it was. I'd just saved a life, right? Super heroes always charm their lovers after they save lives, don't they?

I never hear her response, though. Because that's when it all became too much for my body to handle, and I passed out right there.

I've really got to stop doing that.

•••

_I'd save you, because I love you_. Dory's mouth hung open. She'd been expecting it for a few days, but it still took her by surprise that he'd said it now. She'd seen right, she was positive.

And of course, he chose that time to randomly fall asleep. Nice, Ig, nice. He fell forward, onto her, but she grabbed him by the shoulders and slowly lowered him down. Everyone else was gathered around a small fire AJ and Max had started a few moments ago—the Pack, the Flock, Else, and everyone they'd saved.

All of the passengers had been saved. Even the passed out old lady, who Gazzy had been stuck with. As a matter of fact, he was puking now because she'd had an accident on his shoulder. The small family was hugging and kissing off to the side, the young couple was making out, the elderly man was waiting anxiously for his wife to return to consciousness, and the little boy was chatting with Nudge and Nellie.

All of the passengers had been saved, yes, but Dory knew that passengers weren't the only people who rode planes. There was the captain, co-captain, stewardesses, and probably even more people in there for technical reasons.

She hadn't been able to look back, because she might have dropped the little girl she was carrying. When she was able to glance up, she couldn't find the plane anywhere. It would be nice to think that the pilot did an emergency landing, and they were all okay. That they'd actually been right near the airport, and they got out with nothing but an interesting story. That there were parachutes, and they jumped. That they were over water and happened to have life-vests.

But she would never know. Neither would Iggy, and she knew that that would tear him apart. She glanced down at his limp form, as he inhaled deeply, exhaled. _Sleep_, she thought. _You deserve it._

Although, she had to admit that she was kind of disappointed that he'd conked out. She wanted to tell him that she loved him, too. That it was unfathomable how amazing he was. That she'd begun balling as soon as he'd jumped, and her eyes were probably just as blood-shot as his. That her throat hurt from screaming after him in terror.

Yeah, if he'd stayed conscious, they'd be kissing by now. She'd have made sure of it.

What was weird was the fact that even though he was out like a light, he was still shivering. Trembling. She contemplated dragging him over to the fire, but she didn't want to hurt his wing any more.

She wedged her short arms under him, and tried to lift. Somehow, she mustered enough strength and was able to sling him over her shoulder. Only, he was way too tall; his shins dragged across the grass as she stumbled forward.

"You are a tank," she muttered.

_How's he doing?_ Max called to her as she approached the fire. It was still light out, the sun slowly falling. Dory tried to shrug, but only her free shoulder went up.

"Tired," she answered. Max made a face.

_Poor guy_. Dory nodded, carefully lowering him to a grassy spot near the fire.

"He saved them all," she murmured.

_Yeah_, Max agreed. _As horrible a person this makes me sound, it was the last thing on my mind._

"Well, you're main concern is your Flock." Max glanced down at Iggy pointedly, a grim look on her face.

_Most of the time_. She looked at Dory with sorry eyes before turning around and walking back to Fang.

A few minutes later, AJ came to sit next to Dory.

_How you holding up?_ She asked.

"I'll survive."

_And him?_ She nodded at Iggy.

"He will, too." There must have been a certain tone to Dory's voice, because AJ grinned suddenly.

_I'm proud of you, Dors,_ she said. Dory felt her cheeks flush.

"Thanks."

_Really, though. You've got a light in your eyes that I haven't seen in a while_. She shrugged modestly, the way she always does.

"I guess I'm just plain happy." AJ's smile got even bigger.

_It's about time, Fedora_. Dory shot her a look, hating when people called her that. AJ rolled her eyes, patted her on the back, and scurried off.

Dory found herself staring at Iggy again, mesmerized. A dictionary couldn't find the words to describe him. Before, she'd give anything to hear again. To hear music, sound effects, that sound that rain makes when it pounds against the window, like back in the School. But now, there was something more important. She wouldn't have thought it possible.

If AJ and Damian felt this way about each other…well how'd he ever leave? Dory knew she'd never be able to do it. Ever. Even if the world depended on it, which was just sad. But she finally understood why AJ had been such a mess. Why Gabriel slept outside so that he didn't have to listen to her thoughts. She'd tried to understand, back then, but it was just so weird to her. Now, she got it.

The sun was progressively sinking back behind the trees, a scarlet color taking the sky. She wondered what it was like for Iggy, not to be able to see this. He had to know what he was missing.

A wave of exhaustion swept over her. It seemed as though they'd all be sleeping under the stars tonight—nobody wanted to weed their way through the Middle of Nowhere yet.

She made a small pile of leaves into a pillow and rested her head on it, right beside Iggy's. He was right: it _was_ pretty cold out. The light rain had stopped, but there was a chilly night breeze. Dory draped her arm across his chest, pulling him as close to her as possible.

"I love you too," she whispered before she fell asleep.

**AN: Cheesy, I know. :] **


	19. Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19

**AN: I have a soccer tourney Saturday and Sunday, so if I take a while with the next chapter, forgive me. If we win during this tournament, it will be our first win of the season! Whooo! **

Nudge had been the very last to jump from the plane. She'd gone even after Max and AJ, which was sort of weird considering the leaders are usually the last ones back. But she was the one who would carry the boy, who was about her age.

"Come on!" She'd yelled, as he stood there, frozen. "Okay, so I know you're in shock or whatever—I read a book where that happened to someone and stuff—but seriously if you don't get over here right now I'm going to go without you and that would really suck because those big bruisers aren't going to leave you alone just because you're normal!"

He was standing precariously close to the fire—and the big dudes—and it made Nudge nervous. This had the potential to end very badly. But even she could never predict what happened next. He'd glanced over at her, smiled, and said, "Normal?"

Then he'd proceeded to raise his hands, point his palms at the fire, and _blast it with water_. From his hands. He blasted freaking water from his hands. Nudge's mouth hung open in surprise, as did those of the big dudes. Once the fire was out, the boy ran over, and Nudge hooked her arms around him and jumped.

He'd informed Nudge on the way down that his name was Aquarius, but he liked to be called Rus. He also told her not to tell the others about his gift.

"Why?" She demanded.

"Just don't okay?"

"You think that's enough to stop me?"

"I don't _want_ to be like this. I'm sick of people using me because of it. So just keep you annoying little mouth shut, or you won't see the end of this." Nudge shuttered, thinking about it. If she didn't know better, she'd say that's a threat.

•••

Iggy's POV

Running. I was running through some distinctly familiar forest, watching for branches and rocks and whatnot as I did so. Keyword: _watching_. Because I could see. But for some reason, I didn't find that weird.

In front of me were Max and Fang. Even though I haven't been able to actually _see_ them in years, I knew it was them. Next to them were two others, with tails flailing behind them. AJ and Damian, my brain supplied. Nah, nothing odd about the fact that I just suddenly knew these things.

On my left was Gazzy, his usually pale face flushed and sweaty. Beside him was another boy who looked somewhat similar, only his skin was several shades darker and his hair was several shades lighter. He had pointy ears propped up on his head, and I magically knew he was Fuzz.

Nudge was next to him, and then a wolf-girl with platinum blonde hair and accessories galore. Nellie. Then came a taller, more serious looking girl—woman?—with thick auburn hair and dark, glittery makeup smudged around her eyes. Else.

Then I turned to my left, and saw the most beautiful creature to walk the earth.

She was much shorter than me, but carried herself in a chill, mildly confident manor, even when running. She had wild, wavy, cappuccino colored hair (okay, weird color-description, but it's the first thing that came to mind) that whipped out behind her, causing her to look somewhat like a goddess. Her eyes were the exact color of peridot, twinkling but concentrated. Her face was round-ish, her cheeks were rosy, and her teeth were clenched.

_Dory_.

My God, is _that_ what I've been missing? I mean, I knew she would be gorgeous, but holy shit.

I didn't have time to mull over it now, though. I got the sense that our lives were sort of at stake.

I've been here before, I noted with curiosity. I've been in this exact position.

Something was missing…

I glanced behind me, but there was nothing there. Huh? What in the world were we running from? And hey, for that matter, if our lives were in danger, why weren't we flying? Why weren't the Pack running as fast as they could?

"This is the price," I heard vaguely. The speaker was nowhere to be seen, and its voice was just an echo.

"No!" Cried Max. I looked around, confused. Then, I noted something—someone—coming out of the brush in front of us.

Something was still missing, but I had no idea what.

A silhouette appeared, the sun at its back. We were getting closer, closer…

And that's when I opened my eyes to complete and utter nothingness. Because I'm only aloud to see in my nightmares, right?

•••

Angel sat next to Gabriel and peered out at the rest. Most were sleeping, and those who weren't made no attempt to get up. She decided, since she was so painfully bored, to do a little once-over of everyone's thoughts.

First she peaked into Fang's mind. Then pulled herself back out instantly and tried to erase that image from her head. Maybe later she'd show Max what he was thinking. That would either flatter her, or make her very, very angry. Angel grinned, hoping for the latter.

Max was awake, but pretending to be asleep so that she didn't have to get up. _Please don't call me_, she thought to herself. Angel smirked. It was funny, knowing everybody's secrets. It was even a game of sorts.

Next was Gazzy and Fuzz, but she doubted she wanted to know what _they_ were thinking. Her silly, immature brother and his silly, immature friend.

She glanced at Iggy, who was embracing Dory in his sleep. Well, his half-sleep, actually. It seemed like he was trying to get back to sleep, after waking up. It was early, after all, and he was lazy. Out of curiosity, she glimpsed at Dory's thoughts. Well, _she_ was wide awake. Her thoughts were very loud, and it sort of annoyed Angel.

_Oh my God, he's hugging me while he's sleeping, that's so cute! I have to tell him, as soon as he wakes up. Like, the very second. How will I say it, though? I'm going to sound so stupid, I know it. Maybe I'll wait a little bit. No. Yes. Ahh, I have no idea. Heh heh, his leg just twitched again. _

Angel turned away. Boring.

_Angel, are you snooping?_ She smiled as Gabriel sent the thought to her.

_Yep_. She looked into his thoughts to see that he'd been doing the same thing.

_I should just tune Damian out all together_, he thought grimly. _Teenagers are so…weird_. Angel nodded solemnly.

_Yes, it's kind of disturbing. They have no shame, and say like, um, and cool way too much. They even_ think_ it now! How pathetic. _

_It's just sad_, Gabriel agreed. _It's even worse that we're subject to listen to them_.

_People just get dumber with age._ Then she smiled. _Well, except for us. _

_We just get smarter by the day. _

_And we don't pretend to be asleep when we're not. How sad is that? _

_Very. You know, let's go for a walk. Try to find the closest town. We'll be one step ahead of everybody. _Angel smiled a big, toothy grin.

_You read my mind_. They shared a brief, quiet laugh before standing up and slowly making their way through the brush.

•••

Iggy's POV

"Five words."

I slowly lifted my lids for the second time. I'd fallen back to sleep after that nightmare, but no more vivid, colorful dreams came to me. Just the normal kind, where I can't see anything. It made me sort of nervous—if my imagination couldn't normally give me images, then how come I sometimes get these odd dreams? Or premonitions, or whatever they are.

But aside from that, I got the feeling that Dory was leaning over me.

"Five words," she repeated. Well, I was sort of hoping for three, but whatever.

"What?"

"You twitch in your sleep." I raised an eyebrow.

"Huh. Really."

"Yep. Just like a dog."

"Oh, you're calling _me_ a dog? I'm not the one with a tail."

"True, but you _do_ twitch in your sleep." I shook my head.

"And this is relevant, why?"

"I don't know. It's just kind of funny. Usually it's your left leg, but sometimes it's your nose or mouth," she observed.

"All right… I guess that's, uh, good to know?"

"Well, I was just making an examination. We grew up around scientists, remember?" I rolled my eyes. As I did, I remembered something.

"You have amazing eyes," I told her. What? I was rolling my eyes, and that made me think of eyes, and that made me think of my dream, in which I saw her eyes. So…there.

"Thanks, but…how do you know what my eyes look like?" I fidgeted with the hem of my shirt.

"I saw them. In my dream."

"Oooh, I'm in your dreams?" Her suggestive tone made me blush involuntarily.

"Not like that," I said quickly, inducing a laugh on her part. "No, like, a vision-dream-nightmare-thing." Smooth, I thought. Very smooth.

"And in said vision-dream-nightmare-thing, you saw my eyes."

"I saw everything. I wasn't blind."

"That's great, Iggy," she said, her sincerity making me smile. "How come it was a nightmare?" Funny, Max had asked the same thing the first time I had it.

"We were running from something, I don't know what. I've had this dream before, right before we met you, but last night it was a little different. There was a figure…and something was missing."

"Something?" She prompted. I shrugged.

"No idea what. It's going to bug me, though." I hadn't realized it, but I'd been progressively rising, and now I was sitting in an upright position. Then something occurred to me, something that probably should have been bothering me.

"Wait—where in the world are we?"

"I'm guessing somewhere in the mid-west. It's all grass, with occasional trees popping up."

"Why are we here, again?"

"The plane?" Oh, right of course. I looked down sightlessly.

"Did everybody live?" I asked bluntly.

"All of the passengers lived," she reported. I was about to jump for joy, but I noticed a slight emphasis on 'passengers'. I raised an eyebrow.

"Well…everybody else was…unaccounted for."

"Who's everybody else?"

"Pilot, stewardesses, copilot, etc." I felt my stomach tighten. Just because they were on the plane for their job didn't mean they didn't have lives. That actually made it worse: they were just trying to pay the bills. Feed their families.

Dory touched my arm, but I pulled away. It's kind of hard to comfort someone when they're busy self-loathing.

"Hey, they might be okay," she said, but I could here the doubt in her voice. I held up my hands.

"Dory, you can see. Is that blood on my hands?"

"What? No, there's just dirt and— Oh, metaphorically. No, it's not your fault."

"Yes it is! I should have healed faster—no, I shouldn't have gotten my wing broken in the first place! If I'd been just a little less cocky, I could have avoided that. But no—instead, I break my wing, so we have to take a plane, and said plane is set on fire because of us. Me. Because they knew I couldn't fly."

"But you _did_ fly. And we saved so many people."

"Yeah. But we didn't save them all."

I regretted telling her that I loved her yesterday. I could see why she wasn't saying it back: who would love an awful, horrible death-causer like me? I'd probably freaked her out.

"Iggy—" She was cut off by Gazzy's nervous shout.

"Where's Angel?" That's when it came together: _she_ was what was missing from my dream. She and Gabriel.


	20. Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

**AN: Okay, so in reality, I ran backward at my soccer game, tripped on a rock, and sprained/slightly cracked my wrist. But in my head, it went like this: **_**People were converging on either side of me, and all I could do was shoot. The last thing I saw before I blanked out in agony was the ball slamming into the net…and it was raining…and my hair was swishing around like a Pantene commercial…and a hot guy carried me to safety**_**. I like my version better. Splints suck.**

Iggy's POV

Call me crazy, but something about two seven year olds disappearing, right after I wake up from a vivid dream in which they weren't present, had me feeling sort of unnerved. And by that I mean it totally freaked me out.

I explained this to Max, who was already sick with worry. Sure, Angel could be annoying, and bratty, and conceited, and egotistical, and…wait, what was my point again? Oh yeah—even though at times we couldn't stand her, she was still part of the Flock. The Pack felt the same way about Gabriel.

"What's going on?" A young boy asked me. He sounded about ten or eleven.

"Two of our friends are…unaccounted for," I replied, using the phrase that Dory had used less than an hour ago.

"What are you going to do?" There was an undercurrent to his innocent question, and I instinctively put my guard up. I know what you're thinking: Dude, chill, he's just a kid. But Gazzy and Angel and even Nudge were just kids, mind you, and I knew very well what they could do. Hell, even I was just a kid. Fifteen isn't technically an adult. I knew what happened when you underestimated kids.

"I don't know. Guess we'll find out."

"Aren't you in charge?" He asked, seeming genuinely confused.

"No." You could say I wasn't in the best of moods.

"But you're the one who told everyone what to do."

"No I didn't."

"On the plane—"

"Could you shut it about the freaking plane?" I snapped striding away.

This day had the potential to be very great when I woke up. I could have been the hero, the savior of the masses. I could have had a Moment with Dory. I could have been on cloud nine. But things somehow ended up wrong, like they always do. I wasn't actually a hero, Dory probably couldn't look at me, and Angel and Gabriel were missing.

Thanks, life.

"Iggy," Max called. I walked toward her voice.

"What." My voice was flat and emotionless.

"Was Fang in your first dream?"

"No idea."

"Okay, could you try to remember? It's kind of important," she said, clearly annoyed at my lack of enthusiasm. I sighed. Being moody was too much work. How'd Fang manage it all the time?

"I don't think so. It probably would have jumped out at me, you know? Since we had no idea where he was at the time."

"All right. And he was _definitely_ in this one?" I nodded.

"Right in front of me. Why?"

"Just thinking through some things."

"You're thinking that it's not a coincidence that Fang is here and Angel and Gabriel are missing, just like my dream," I guessed.

"Yeah. It's really confusing, because you predicted the part about the Pack, but not the part about Fang. And if the Voice had something to do with this, it would be weird, because it's opposed to both of those things." The weird note in her voice made me curious. I raised an eyebrow.

"How opposed?"

"Well, I told you that it said that the reason everything is happening is because we teamed up with the Pack and found Fang, right?"

"You might have mentioned it. I don't get why it's going after _me_, though. Since when did I become important?" She didn't answer for a few moments.

"It's the opposite, actually," she said quietly.

"Huh?"

"It…whoever the Voice is, it wants to make me pay. But it doesn't want to hurt me, because…"

"Because you're important."

"Well, I guess."

"So, it's not that bad if I do die, right? Because I'm not important. I'm dispensable." I felt all of my emotions from the last twenty four hours building up, swirling together.

"No! Iggy, you're not dispensable. It could have been Nudge or Gazzy or anybody."

"But it wasn't."

"You're missing the point—"

"No, I get it."

"Ig, now's not the time to feel sorry for yourself. We have other things to worry about." I glared, because I knew she was right. Angel and Gabriel were still missing, and we still had a handful of survivors to deal with. I was just being selfish.

"What are we going to do?"

"I don't know yet. Just…give me a few minutes."

So I did. I sauntered away from her with no idea where to go. I had to find something to calm me. Naturally, I thought of skipping.

No gay jokes.

It keeps me buoyant, okay?

I walked a little ways away from the group, hoped nobody was watching, and started skipping. Usually, I would just break out my wings and start flying, but that would be stupid, considering I just barely made it to the ground without going splat last time.

I didn't even want to think of how idiotic I looked, skipping back and forth in the middle of nowhere, but it certainly was calming. It's a great stress reliever; you should try it. I was sort of expecting someone to come over and laugh at me, but surprisingly enough, nobody did.

I stopped before I could start sweating, because that would make it even more embarrassing. The problem was that skipping in circles can leave you sort of disoriented, and when you're blind, it's not so easy to find your way back.

"Hey," I called out loudly.

"Hi." Dory's response came from right behind me, causing me to jump.

"When did you get there?" I demanded, feeling a flush rise to my cheeks.

"Same time you did."

"And you just stood there and watched me." Damn, I should have known.

"Well, it was kind of cute, actually." I laughed out loud (see what I mean? Skipping does that to you).

"You seem to be in a better mood," she noted.

"Yeah, well, that was sort of the point."

"You're not dispensable," she told me.

"You heard that?"

"I was right near you, and it's not like you were whispering. But you're not, okay? It's really annoying when you talk like that."

"Sorry," I mumbled half-heartedly. "But do you seriously never feel like that?"

"I used to. You know, before I fell in love."

"Well I—wait, _what_?" There was a silence, in which she was probably realizing what she just said. It wasn't necessarily an _awkward_ silence. Actually, it was kind of nice.

"Yeah," she said at last. "I was going to tell you yesterday, but you were busy sleeping. I love you, kay?"

Okay friends, that will go down in history as one of the happiest moments of my life.

I found her waist easily, and lifted her up like they do in the movies. I didn't spin around, though, because I thought that might be tacky. She wasn't heavy, even though her bones weren't hollow like mine.

I felt her hands grip the back of my head, and just like that, we were kissing.

_YES!_

_THANK YOU GOD! _

_MY LIFE IS BETTER!_

It wasn't one of those jam-my-tongue-down-your-throat kisses. It was soft, slightly tentative, and by far the best experience life has to offer. It was amplified for us, even, since our disabilities caused our other senses—touch included—to be hyped up a little.

"Dory and Iggy sittin' in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes bird-wolf-kid-mutant-thing-baby in a baby carriage!" Gazzy chanted. My cheeks burned as I slowly set her down, keeping one of my arms on her waist.

"What's wrong?" She whispered.

"Gazzy." He and Fuzz were cackling like the little creepers they were as they made their way over.

"You're so classy, Gaz," I muttered.

"I took a picture," he stated smugly.

"So? You think I'm ashamed? I'm ecstatic!"

"Well…um, yeah."

"Does this make you uncomfortable?" I asked before leaning down and kissing Dory once again (and I didn't miss!).

"Yeah, it actually kind of does," Gazzy mumbled.

"All right."

"I'm going to tell Max."

"Good."

"You're so _weird_," he grunted before the two scuttled off.

"Children," Dory scoffed when they were gone. "So shameless."

"Well they saved us the awkward moment that usually comes after the first kiss," I pointed out. She laughed, and everything just felt so whole and right. Eventually, I knew, we'd have to go find Angel and Gabriel and civilization. But for now, it was okay to just be with Dory, be happy, be free. For now.

•••

Max's POV

_You were right, Maximum_. I blinked, still furious at the Voice.

_Well. Like I didn't know that. But what about, in particularly?_

_Though Iggy is blind, he is still an asset to your Flock_, the Voice told me.

_Finally you understand! So you're just going to leave me alone now, right?_

_Wrong. Your Flock aren't the only people that you care about_.

My blood went cold.

•••

Ella Martinez was almost positive that she would burst in joy if her life got any better. She had maintained a 95 average, she had the best friends in the world, Max was coming to visit soon, and she got MVP on her soccer team. Not to mention the fact that she was in Tyler Henry's car at the moment.

"Want me to walk you to your door?" He asked, his voice like…happiness. She couldn't even think of adjectives, she was that happy. Just as she opened her mouth to say _YESSS_, her phone vibrated.

_I'm watching you, Ella_, her mom texted. She sighed, seeing her mother peering out of her bedroom window.

"Parental units," she muttered, rolling her eyes. Tyler flashed one of his gorgeous smiles. He kissed her lightly on the cheek.

"I'll call you tomorrow," he promised. She grinned again before opening her door.

"Love you Ty!"

"Love you too." She closed the door behind her, listening to the screech of his wheels as he drove off into the night.

"_Happiness runs in a circular motion_," she sang as she ambled up to her porch. She heard that song on the Fruit Loops commercial, and it had been stuck in her head ever since. She fiddled with her keys, jamming them into the lock. "_Something something something something under sea._

"_Happiness runs, happiness runs_."

But unlike happiness, Ella never got a chance to run. She never got a chance to do anything, really. Before she could twist her doorknob, scream for help, or call her mom, something hit her on the back of the head, and she blacked out right there.

**AN: I'm leaving for my 2-week vacation Saturday, and there's no wi-fi. However, I'm bringing my dad's laptop, and we're driving into town one day so I might be able to post a chapter or two. I'll keep typing anyway! (Well, for the first week. Our friends are coming down the second and I don't want to be TOO antisocial…)**


	21. Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

**AN: I'm back! Week one: chilling in the sun, typing this up from a gazebo that overlooks the water and was definitely built for me. Week two: Intense action, tubing, knee-boarding, and jumping off 30-foot cliffs with a sprained wrist (and almost getting maimed in the process and landing on my ass). Hated to leave…but at least I have wi-fi now! Chapter 22 coming tomorrow, if not later today. There's just so much to do…brain…imploding… **

Max's POV

I waited until both the Flock and the Pack were gathered around me to speak.

"We have to leave now. To my mom's house. She and my sister are in danger because of me."

"What about Angel and Gabriel?" Gazzy asked, his bright eyes wide and scared. I took a deep breath.

"They'll be okay for a little bit on their own. They're smart kids."

"The survivors," Iggy pointed out. "We can't just leave them."

"We're going to have to."

"No!" He snapped, glaring. "They're here because of me, and I'm going to make sure they're safe."

"They're here because of me," I corrected, wasting a glower on him. "And Ella and my mom are a bit more important at the moment."

"I think they're both important," Nudge chimed in. "And same with Angel and Gabriel. We can't, like, pick and choose. It's not fair."

"Well what do you want me to do? They're just a bunch of strangers who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They probably have cell phones."

"What if we split up?" Iggy suggested.

"We can't split up."

"Why not? It makes the most sense."

"That's stupid, Ig, we can't do it."

"No, Max, we could totally do it!" Nudge said. "We have the two phones that Nellie and I got, and between all the survivors, they probably have at least one, right? So we can make three groups, and keep in touch by cell phones!" I honestly didn't like the idea of splitting up—that never worked in the past—but it didn't look like I'd win the argument.

"Dory and I will go with the survivors," Iggy offered.

"I want to go with them, too," Nudge put in.

"Me too!" Nellie and Else chirped in unison, laughing as they did so.

"We'll go find the kids," AJ said, gesturing to Damian and herself.

"I'm going to find my sister, too," Gazzy declared.

"Yes," Fuzz burped. I didn't have any say in the matter—which pissed me off, but I'd live—as they started to get into little groups.

"So that leaves me and Fang going to my mom's," I said. "Cool?" I got various forms of 'yes'. Fang didn't miss the wistful glance I shot at the Flock before nodding.

"Hey," he murmured quietly. "This means we get to be alone."

Pathetic, maybe. Say what you want, but that certainly did make me feel marginally better.

•••

Iggy's POV

For a blind guy, I'm impressively good at remembering names. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm a sponge.

Let's see. There was Aidan—the baby I saved—and his family, which consisted of his eight-year-old sister Jess, and his parents (Marion and Dave, in case you were wondering). There was a pregnant couple, Mia and Aaron, and there was an elderly couple, Harry and Lauretta. And then there was the boy who went by Aquarius, or Rus. Basically, Dory and I were in charge of all of them. I mean, Nudge, Nellie, and Else were with us, too, but they weren't exactly the leader type. I wasn't either, but Dory and I were the closest.

Nine total survivors. Four of which were older than me. All I really had to do was get them somewhere with a police station, and somebody else could take over from there. Not hard, right? Even when you're blind, injured, and sick with love.

Well, that's what I thought, at least.

Lauretta was conscious, but Harry informed me that she could hardly walk. And that she needed her pills. And that she couldn't eat anything crunchy.

"What happens if she doesn't get her pills?" I asked nervously.

"She's already missed a night. If she misses two more, that's not good. She absolutely must have them by Sunday night," Harry replied.

"What day is it today?" Please say Monday, I thought.

"Friday." Oh, lovely.

"Can you carry her?"

"I can try, but I've got a slipped disk in my lower back, and I don't know how far, or how fast for that matter, I'll get." I sighed.

"I'll carry her," I said reluctantly. But I heard about what happened to Gazzy, and if she peed on me, I swear to God.

"Bless your heart," Harry murmured before shuffling away.

"You sure you'll be okay?" Dory asked, coming up beside me. "What with your wing and everything?"

"As long as I don't have to fly, I'll be fine," I answered. My wing still hurt, but as long as I kept it in a neutral position, it was tolerable. I still wondered how the survivors were taking the whole mutant thing. They hadn't said anything thus far, so I figured they were just happy that we rescued them. Even if we were, you know, mutant freaks.

"I can carry Lauretta if you want," she offered.

"Nah, I got her. Just make sure I don't walk into anything, all right?" She laughed quietly under her breath.

"Like a tree?"

"Yes. Like a tree." Dory was interrupted before she could say any more.

"Um, excuse me?" I recognized the voice—Aidan's mom.

"Yeah?"

"My daughter, Jess, she has asthma. I'm sure it won't be a problem, but we're not going to be running or anything, correct?" Oh, goody. Another problem.

"No, we'll just walk."

"Okay, thank you."

"Yup."

Max and Fang had already taken off, as with AJ, Damian, Fuzz and Gazzy. We were the last group to move out, and I knew we really had to keep going. Just as I was about to announce that we were leaving, I heard four words that I _really_ did not need to hear.

"_My water just broke!_"

•••

Max's POV

"I swear, if one more thing goes wrong, I'm going to have a freaking aneurysm."

"Ew," Fang said. "Isn't that when your head explodes, or something?"

"I don't know. I think it has to do with blood cells or whatever. That's not the point, though. The point is that I'm this close to absolutely freaking out."

"The Voice is probably bluffing," he said, trying to make me feel better. "Watch. We'll show up at your mom's, sick with worry, and she and Ella will be sitting on the couch eating popcorn and Pepsi."

"You can't eat Pepsi, Fang, it's a drink," I snapped. He rolled his eyes.

"You know what I mean. I bet they're fine."

"I hope so." But hope can only get you so far, you know? I flew a bit faster.

"Let's land here," he suggested. "We can figure out where we are."

"Fine." I angled myself downward and landed lightly in a forest on the outskirts of a small town.

We stopped at a convenience shop, and the woman at the counter told us we were in Savannah, Georgia. I could have sworn we were flying west, but apparently not. I purchased a map and a compass so that I wouldn't make that mistake again.

"How exactly is a map of America going to help us?" Fang asked when we were outside. I shrugged.

"You think I know how to get to Mesa off the top of my head?"

"How are you going to carry it?" I grinned.

"I'm not. You are." I shoved it into his arms, spread my wings, and took off. I found it amusing, how he was trying to roll it up mid-flight. The wind kept blowing it in his face.

I glanced at the compass, and hung a sharp left, almost colliding with a discombobulated Fang. He glanced at me, muttered something incoherent, and continued to try to roll up the map.

"Could you slow down?" He asked, getting aggravated. I sighed and slowed down a tiny bit.

Eventually, even at Fang's pace, we made it to Arizona. I bought another map, but this one was smaller and only of Arizona. I saved Fang the trouble and carried this one by myself.

I recognized Mesa from the air. I probably didn't even need the maps, to tell you the truth. I think it'll always be programmed into my brain. It was even easier to recognize my mom's house.

Of course it was easy to recognize her house. Because it was surrounded by cop cars.

**AN: I hate typing on the go, because I can't randomly Google things. And when I finally get somewhere with wi-fi, I can't remember for the life of me what I wanted to randomly Google :/**


	22. Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

**AN: With all my chilling and basking in the sun (sounds like an oxymoron if you think about it), I finally have an idea of where I'm going with this! It'll be a little while before I end this, but I know what I'm doing now, for the first time since I started this. I feel accomplished. I MIGHT just finish this before school...well probably not but it's possible.**

Iggy's POV

I'm an avian-human hybrid. I grew up in a dog crate. I play with explosives for fun. I'm freaking blind. By no means am I, nor will I ever be, equipped to deliver a baby.

I don't even know what it _means_ when someone's water breaks! All I know is that it means they're going to have a baby. And that, in movies, they always rush to a hospital. Unfortunately, there wasn't one nearby.

"Iggy!" Nudge shouted. "What do we do?"

"I don't know! Do I _look_ like I know?"

"Yeah!"

"Well I don't!"

"I might be able to help," Else said. "My friend Jennie, she got knocked up by her boyfriend Buff, and—"

"What kind of name is Buff?" Nudge wondered.

"A weird one. Sort of like Buffy in guy form. But that's beside the point. We were hanging out at the mall, right? When all the sudden, she was like—"

"I don't care," I interrupted. "Go deliver the baby. You're in charge of that."

"What? I said I could _help_, not deliver the thing!"

"My girlfriend's water broke!" Aaron cried.

"I understand!" I snapped. "What do you want me to do about it? Why were you on a freaking plane?"

"_She wasn't due for two weeks!_" He screamed. So not only was someone I was in charge of about to have a baby, but it was kind of premature as well. I think. How wondrous.

"I've had two children," a woman's voice—Marion—said calmly. "I know how the procedure basically works."

"Well go do what you do," I said gruffly. "Else, go help."

"Okay." I grabbed for Dory's hand.

"What do I do?" I whispered so that nobody else could hear.

"You thank God you're blind," she retorted, dead serious.

"No, really."

"That wasn't a joke. But I suppose we should get something to put the baby in. So that it doesn't, you know, die." That sounded like a pretty good idea to me.

•••

Ella cried out, sobbing furiously as they broke her other leg. The tiny snap echoed in her ears, ringing out like the Loudest Freaking Thing on Earth. Pain, that's all she could think about, all she could feel. Pain and torture.

"Why are you doing this to me?" She managed to cry.

"You can thank your sister," a deep voice responded. She couldn't utter another word; all she could do was scream and gasp.

Pain. Sharp pain. Splitting pain. Absolute pain. Horrible pain. Unfathomable pain. She could come up with a million adjectives to describe pain, if she wanted to. But she didn't. She didn't want to do anything. She didn't want to exist.

She wanted to know if they were going to kill her, but the words wouldn't come to her lips. Every time she took a breath to ask the question, all that came out was an awful wail.

"You don't take pain well," the deep voice noted, amused. Ella couldn't respond. "That's too bad." Absently, she noted that he was breaking something else, but it was impossible to pinpoint what. At this point, everything hurt. Everything seemed to be broken.

_The next thing he breaks will be my neck,_ she thought through the agony._ I'm sure of it. Why keep me alive?_

•••

Angel sighed, frustrated.

"Where are we?" She wondered.

"Somewhere," Gabriel muttered, not particularly happy. "We're going in the wrong direction."

"Let's turn around," she suggested.

"We haven't been going straight, though. I don't know which way is which."

"I'm hungry."

"Me too."

_Let's go fly somewhere_, Angel said mentally, tired of talking out loud.

_I can't fly, remember? _Gabriel answered testily.

_I'll carry you! _

Gabriel shrugged, opening his arms. "Go for it," he said.

Angel fit her small arms under his and spread her wings. He wasn't really heavy, but she was physically the weakest of the Flock. It wasn't her fault; she was physically the smallest, too. She wasn't able to fly as high or fast as usual, but she could still carry him. Luckily for her, he was physically the smallest of his Pack as well.

Keyword: physically. Mentally, they were by far the strongest.

_Yes we are_, Gabe thought pleasantly, picking up on Angel's thoughts.

"By far," she repeated out loud, grinning. She didn't necessarily mean to be cocky, but it was true. She could read minds, communicate without talking. Could Max or AJ do that? No way. All they could do was bark orders. And kick butt, which came in handy, but didn't give them leader-rights.

"I still think we should be the leaders," Gabriel said. "If we'd been born a few years earlier, we would be. It's so pointless to discriminate on age."

"I know. But they _are_ older and stronger, I have to admit." He nodded absently.

"Eventually, we will be old and strong. When we're, like, twenty, they'll have nothing on us. We'll be stronger and more mature, both mentally _and_ physically."

"Until then, we can just play along," Angel said. "It'll keep them happy."

"Exactly. Let's go back to where they were. They probably haven't even noticed that we're gone." Angel nodded, turning them around in the direction that she predicted they'd be. The dry, brittle grass passed below them slowly as she flew them back.

But despite all of there superior talk, neither of them had any idea where they were. She was flying them aimlessly around the middle of nowhere.

And they were still hungry.

•••

Max's POV

I didn't suppose that the cop cars were there for Mom's cookies. But, honestly, I kind of hoped so.

"They heard that Ella and Dr. Martinez had popcorn and Pepsi?" I suggested.

"The microwave caught on fire?" Fang added.

"Something horrible is going on because of me and the Voice?"

"That sounds about right," he muttered as we landed on my mother's lush green lawn, momentarily startling the cop who was standing there. He blinked a few times and went back to being calm but alert.

"Valencia is expecting you," he said, peering behind me. "Shouldn't there be more of you?"

"Long story," I said, striding past him. There were forensics swabbing something on the front porch, so Fang and I walked around to the back door. I knocked once but let myself in anyway. My mom spun around, and seemed relieved to see me. She ran forward and hugged me in that way that moms have.

"Oh Max! I've been trying to reach you, but I had no way of finding you. How did you know what happened?" I stepped back, guarded.

"I don't. What exactly happened?" My mom's eyes widened.

"Ella's missing." I felt my heart stop, and then quicken. It beat frantically and erratically. "Wait, is that Fang?"

"I'll explain later. When did she go missing?" I demanded.

"Around six." I glanced at the clock behind her, which read 2:23. It was dark, yes, but I hadn't realized it was this late. "She had just gotten back from spending the day with her boyfriend. I saw her get out of his car, and I got up to greet her. But then she never came in. Her key was still in the slot, and there were a few drops of blood on the porch."

How could this happen? Ella was so innocent! She was just a regular girl. A happy, way-less-stressed-than-me, ordinary girl. A good person. I doubt she's even ever had an overdue library book.

_She's your sister_, the Voice said. Unthinkingly, and unable to contain myself, I brought my fist to my forehead. I ignored the pain that this induced as I fell to the floor.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD YOU HEARTLESS, HORRIBLE MONSTER!" I screamed.

"Don't beat yourself up," Fang said quietly. "I mean, literally." How could he joke about this? The Voice kidnapped my sister! Well, not the Voice itself, since it was in my head, but I was sure that it played a major part in all this.

"I'm so _done_ with this! I need it to be out of my head! _Now_!"

"You think it's your Voice's fault?" Mom asked.

"It told me so!" I took a deep breath, trying desperately to calm myself. "It didn't want me to find Fang, or the—our new friends. So it's trying to get me to cooperate by hurting the people I care about," I explained.

"Your new friends?" My mother inquired. Her forehead creased. I felt a sudden pang of guilt for making my mom's life so hectic as I spotted a single gray hair hanging in front of her face.

"They're wolf-human hybrids. But not Erasers or anything. They're really cool, and a lot like us, but the Voice is opposed to them for some reason." Mom shook her head.

"This just really freaking pisses me off!" She exclaimed. I blinked, not expecting that from my quaint little mother.

"Me too," I murmured sullenly.

"Excuse my language. I've been up all night, and this is just so crazy..."

"Go get some sleep, Mom," I said, even though I'd been up all night, too. "We'll find her, don't worry." She shook her head, but started to get up anyway.

"I'll just nap on the couch for a few minutes..." She stretched out on the couch and was out in seconds. I glanced at Fang.

"Looks like it's going to be an all-nighter," I commented. He nodded slowly.

"You can sleep," he said.

"Nah. I'm not even that tired," I lied, suppressing a yawn. I waltzed over to the fridge, where I found a few two-liters of Pepsi. I tossed one at Fang, who cracked it open and chugged about half.

"Where's the popcorn?" He asked between gulps. I shrugged and started on mine, the caffeine zapping some life into me. I gazed out the window, knowing that my sister could be anywhere out there.

She could be suffering.

"Let's go," I said once my Pepsi was gone. Fang nodded once and glanced at my mom.

"You sure she'll be okay?" The police lights were still flashing blue and red outside, and I thought of all the cops surrounding the house.

"She'll be okay," I responded. We went out the front door, seeing as they were done swabbing.

I saw the tiny drops of blood on the left of the porch and felt a surge of rage flow through me. Whoever hurts my family...well you should know by now that I don't let them off easily.


	23. Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23

**AN: Arizona Iced Tea=Heaven in a can. Just saying.**

So what was my grand solution to the predicament? Leaves. They were big, and seemed soft enough to me.

"We'll swaddle it in this," I told Dory, ripping off the leaves that sat around me.

"You're not serious."

"Yes I am! What else do we have?" She sighed.

"We have plenty. Clothing?"

"Fine, I'll sacrifice my pants."

"Ig, keep your pants on. Marion's already taking off her sweatshirt." I pretended to be disappointed, and she laughed.

"I still can't believe a baby is being born any second now," I said, shaking my head.

"We didn't see that coming," she agreed.

"Now there are _two_ people I have to worry about extra specially. What are the odds that a hospital will just pop up in the middle of nowhere?"

"That was a rhetorical question, right?"

"Yeah. I know they suck. I know that if we don't move really fast, I'm totally screwed. Why didn't I just go look for Angel or something?"

"I don't know. You thought this would be easier?"

"No. I think it's because I wanted to be in charge of something. But that sounds stupid now. I don't want to be in charge of this. I don't want to be the one responsible if somebody gets hurt!"

"But you want to be the one responsible when everybody gets to safety?" I shrugged.

"I guess."

"I think it's a package deal." I thought about that for a moment, realizing that she was right. I couldn't just pick one; I had to deal with both of them. Right now, I was responsible for _everything_, good or bad.

"Do you think there's anything I can do to help?" I wondered.

"The best thing you can do is keep everybody together. Once this baby's born we've really got to get going." Just as she finished talking, there was a loud screaming coming from somewhere in front of me. Speak of the devil, I thought wearily.

"Hey!" I shouted, doubting that anybody was paying attention to me. "Everybody who's not helping, come over here. Give her some space." Surprisingly enough, I heard several people shuffling toward me. I wasn't used to people listening to me; is this how Max felt all the time?

"Iggy, I think something's wrong," Nudge said gravely.

"What? Why?"

"Can't you hear her? She's _screaming_!"

"I think that always happens," I responded. "I guess it hurts, or something."

"Well. I don't think I'm going to be having kids any time soon. Maybe I'll just adopt. This girl I met once was adopted from China! Or was it Korea? I can't remember. I think…" Nudge's rambling was drowned out by the piercing screams that sounded almost inhuman.

"Is she supposed to scream that loud?" I asked Dory quietly. I felt her shrug.

"We didn't have any painkillers, so I'd imagine yes," she answered. The screaming got louder. I felt like I was trapped in some kind of nightmare: All I could hear were blood curling screams, and yet I couldn't do anything about it.

"Push!" Marion shouted. Good God, I didn't need to hear that.

"Ew!" Nudge and Nellie hissed.

"That's nasty," a little boy—Aquarius?—agreed.

In the distance, I heard Marion say, "I need something to cut the umbilical chord." And Else respond with, "Here, use my claws."

Jeez…wiping that mental image from my head…gagging…

The loud screams died down, and as they did, I head a baby's cry, and all at once I knew it was out. The group I'd been keeping me rushed away like a dam had been broken, and Dory and I followed a little slower.

"She's beautiful," I heard someone murmur.

"Evie?" Aaron asked quietly.

"Yeah," Mia agreed, sounding out of breath.

"That's a pretty name," Marion said.

"It's a Latin name meaning 'life'," Mia informed her proudly. "Well, according to that baby names website."

"Have you decided on a middle name?"

"We were still thinking about it. When we get to the hospital, I guess we'll decide then."

"How come it's all bloody?" Nudge demanded ignorantly.

"Shh," I said to her, embarrassed for both of us.

"Shh yourself," she retorted. "You don't have to look at it." I smacked my hand to my forehead. Sometimes, Nudge could be just so…difficult.

"It's okay, I'll wipe it off," Marion assured her. I assumed that this was probably why children generally didn't hang around delivery rooms.

A little bit later, Mia announced that we could hold her. I wasn't sure what to do when it was my turn. It's not like I hate kids, I'm just sort of awkward around them.

But once the little lump was placed into my arms…I don't know, someone else must have possessed me. It made little noise, and then I felt two tiny, shrively hands grabbing onto my noise.

"Aw, she's so cute!" I exclaimed in a nasally voice, unable to restrain myself. "You're so adorable, aren't you?" I cooed, even if I couldn't see her. She was just so tiny, so innocent. I stuck out my finger, and laughed when she wrapped both of her hands around it.

"Dory, look how tiny she is!"

"I see, Iggy," she said, laughing, an unfamiliar tone in her voice.

"My turn!" Nudge announced. I sighed and held out the baby, keeping a firm grip on her so as not to be that guy who dropped the baby on her head.

"You got her?" I asked cautiously, feeling the small weight disappear.

"Yup."

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure, just let go." I did so, very slowly, until there was nothing left in my arms.

Once everyone had had a turn holding Evie, I cleared my throat.

"I hate to ruin the moment," I said. "But we've really got to get moving." Hopefully we weren't already too far behind.

•••

So this is what it feels like to be a hostage, Ella thought despairingly. She still wasn't sure exactly why she was being tortured like this, why they were keeping her alive. She knew that they needed her for something, though. And that it had to do with Max.

Part of her wondered what it would be like if she just let herself slip away. If they needed her, that would probably suck for them. Whoever 'they' were. If she was most likely going to die at some point, why continue helping them?

Her eyes were swollen, so she didn't bother to try to open them. Voices were distant, strangled by the loud, uneven thumping of her heart. She paused her breaths, trying to stay absolutely and completely still, so as not to feel pain. But it didn't work; if the pain lessened at all, she couldn't tell. It was still there.

She could have been laying there, drifting in and out of consciousness, for a few hours, or a few days. There was no way of knowing. Every once and a while they shoved some gross, thick soup into her mouth and commanded her to swallow.

Ella had lost the ability to speak long ago. It took too much of the energy that she was lacking. It was easier if she just bit her already-bloody lip.

_How do you die?_ She wondered. She'd already tried to stop breathing, but that hadn't worked. She didn't have the strength for much else. She just wanted it to be over.

Abstract thoughts began filling her mind. Like, what was going on at home? Did Tyler see her being taken? Where were Max and the Flock? Where was Mom? Jeb? Anybody?

She tried to think of different scenarios of how she'd be saved. It passed the time—well she thought it did, at least. She didn't really know how much time was or wasn't passing. But the only scenario that she didn't end up dead was the one with magic elves and Superman. Her imagination got the best of her, and she started to daydream completely ludicrous daydreams.

"Maxy's on her way here," the deep voice told her at one point, interrupting her somewhat peaceful reverie.

"W-w-w…" She tried to ask where exactly 'here' was, but failed miserably.

"If she cooperates, we might spare you."

"D-d-doncounoni." Translation: Don't count on it. Mr. Deep Voice seemed to understand, kicking her once more.

She figured there'd be a point where she couldn't even feel the pain anymore. But it hadn't come yet. Though she couldn't be sure where the pain was, she still felt it surge through her nerves.

Suddenly, the idea came to her: she could choke on her soup, if they ever gave it to her again. It might not work, but it was about the only plan she had left.

The floor beneath her was cold, but she hardly felt anything external anymore. Along with her numerous fractures and bruises and whatever else they'd done to her, she had a sharp pain in her heart, knowing what she would be doing. She'd be giving up; Max never gave up. But she'd also be sacrificing, and she was sure Max had done that before.

She knew her mom would be infinitely sad, and so would Max, and all her friends, and Tyler. And they'd be mad, too. But maybe, once they saw past it all, they'd be proud of her, too. Once they realized why she gave up.

Ella had never been a big part of any story. She wasn't super popular, and God knows she took a backseat to Max. But if this worked…maybe it would be worth it. Just a little bit. Maybe she'd actually make a difference.

"You're just a plain, simple, insignificant human girl," Deep Voice stated. "I could dispose of you before you could blink."

Ella managed to force her eyes open. The room was dark, so his face wasn't visible, but he could probably see her somehow. So she mustered up the biggest glare she could, and gathered enough strength to utter two words. She said them so quietly that she doubted he could hear, but she said them all the same.

"Here's hoping."

**AN: Damn…I'm getting sadistic lately, aren't I? **


	24. Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

**AN: You may have noticed, but chapters won't be coming quite as fast as my usual, since we're in the middle of that ending-summer/school-approaching chaotic mess of a time, but as soon as that's over the chapters will probably come faster. (Unless I finish it by then….[:…)**

Max's POV

"Come on, let's go," I said to Fang, spreading my wings and launching into the air. He promptly followed, and I set my pace to match his.

"Where, exactly?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow. I looked down at the dark forest below us, asking myself the same thing.

"Um, well, we could head towards the…"

_Turn to your left and fly straight for about ten minutes_. I gritted my teeth at the sound—well, thought, but you know what I mean—of the Voice.

"Why should I listen to you?" I snapped out loud.

_Don't you want to meet me, Maximum? _My eyes widened, but only slightly.

"You're going to trap us."

"What's it saying?" Fang asked, accustomed to my random mutterings.

"It's giving me directions. To meet it." I could barely see Fang's face in the moonlight, but I saw the way his lips formed a taught line, and his brow furrowed in a minuscule way.

"It's a trap," he said, thinking.

"I know," I responded.

_Don't you miss your sister? She's just barely hanging on_. I punched the air in fury, wishing there was something there to smash my fist into.

"No!" I shouted. "Leave Ella alone!"

"It has Ella?"

"That's what it said!" Fang tried to take my hand, but I shook him off. I was not in the mood to be comforted, by any means. I was in the mood to kick someone's ass.

_If you do what we say, we'll let her go_, the Voice said. I sucked in a breath, contemplating.

_And what's that, exactly?_ I thought back.

_You'll see. Turn left_. I bit the inside of my lip so hard that I tasted blood, took a huge breath, and hung a sharp left.

•••

AJ clenched her fists the way she always did when she was frustrated. She and her group had made no progress thus far. How far could two seven-year-olds get, after all? The answer was actually pretty far, considering they were both mutants.

Max and her sister were probably fine, and Iggy and Dory's group had probably reached a city, and her group had just walked and walked and told fart jokes.

But just to be sure…she took out the cell phone that Nellie was letting her borrow. First she held down the two, which would connect her to Nudge's phone, which Max had.

It rang for a few seconds, and then she heard, "Hey! Like, OMG, it's Nudge's phone! I'm not able to pick up right now, but if you'd just leave a message after the beepy-thing, that would be so supertastical!" _Supertastical?_ AJ wondered to herself, shaking her head.

She waited until the beep was over, then said, "Hey Max, it's AJ, just wondering how you're coming along. Bye."

"So charismatic," Damian teased. I narrowed my eyes.

"It's a phone call, Damian. Not a beauty pageant. You don't have to be charismatic in a freaking phone call." He raised his eyebrows.

"Someone's a bit cranky today," he noted.

"I have every right to be. Gabriel and Angel could be anywhere by now. We're never going to find them."

"I'm sure they'll be okay on their own until we find them," he assured her.

"They better be," she replied, holding down the three, which would connect her to the phone of that pregnant girl, which Iggy was borrowing until they were united again.

"Hello?" She recognized Iggy's wary voice.

"Hey. It's AJ. How are you guys doing so far?" There was a pause.

"Well, actually, remember Mia? She sort of had her baby. But we're making good progress now! Well, sort of. I think." AJ thought for a second, trying to decide who was further behind. She was comforted when she decided that their group was. They had a freaking baby?

"Uh, is it okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, she's okay, we're trying to get to a hospital as soon as possible."

"Okay, well try not to kill anybody."

"What? I'd never do that!" The line clicked, signaling the end of the conversation. AJ's brow furrowed nervously as she slid the tiny cell phone shut.

"What's going on?" Damian asked, taking in her bothered and slightly confused expression.

"They, uh, had a baby, apparently."

"'They' being…"

"The pregnant couple, dumb-ass," she snapped, regretting it even as she said it. "Sorry, I'm just really stressed," she amended. She was embarrassed to be so nasty to the one she loved.

"It's fine," Damian said. He seemed totally unbothered. "Angel and Gabriel are probably off robbing a Walmart, or something. They're okay."

"Yeah," AJ muttered. "Even two seven-year-olds are better off than we are."

•••

Iggy's POV

It's not like my group and I didn't have food, we just didn't have much of it. If Dory, Nudge, Nellie, Else and I were human, the food we had would probably last our whole group about a day. But as it stood, the five of us had genetically engineered bodies that demanded twice as much food as the normal human. So, suffice to say, I was about ready to eat the grass around me by the time Dory told me the sun was setting.

My stomach gurgled, twisting in on itself. We had some ho-hos, but the younger kids already devoured them. Mmm, sugar, that's what I needed. Sugar, and fat, and calories, and anything found in that tiny square at the top of the food pyramid.

"Hungry?" Dory asked from beside me. I grinned wryly.

"What makes you think that?"

"Hmm, well, you're clutching you're stomach, you're eyes are glazed over, and you're mouth has been hanging open for the last five minutes." I closed my mouth and blinked a few times, realizing how zombie-like I must have looked.

I interlaced my fingers with hers—that was sort of our thing now. At first it was merely to keep me from running into anything, but now it was what we did whenever either one of us needed a little comfort.

"It's getting dark out," she noted as we walked hand-in-hand. I heard the baby starting up again from behind me, causing Aidan to break out crying again. "We won't be able to see where we're going." I arched an eyebrow.

"Dory, I think you've forgotten, but you're talking to a blind guy. But yeah, I guess for the sake of the rest of you, we can stop pretty soon. Describe what's around us."

"Grass. A tree here and there. Bugs. Pretty intense, huh?"

"Oh yeah." Then I thought of something, "What will happen if the baby gets bit by a mosquito or something?"

"Um, it will have an itchy bump for a few days?"

"Are you sure it won't get sick?" I pressed.

"Probably not. Unless it's carrying that disease—Malaria—but I don't think they do that around here."

"Should we try to make a bug net?" Dory sighed.

"I think it'll be okay for one night," she concluded. "And by the way, you and that baby are adorable."

"What do you mean?"

"You're so...I don't know, gentle with it. Protective."

"Well it _is_ my responsibility right now, in a way."

"Eh, I think you just have a soft spot for little kids."

"I do not," I scoffed indignantly.

"Yup. You definitely do. It's okay to admit it Ig, it's totally cute."

"I don't have a soft spot!" She laughed, amused.

"Because you're indestructible and made of steel, right?" I pretended to think for a second, then nodded.

"Yeah, pretty much. That sounds about right." My stomach gurgled then, as if telling me that I could joke around all I wanted, but it wouldn't make me less hungry.

"We still have some granola bars and cold, leftover pizza from, like, a week ago," Dory told me. It was definitely more than a week ago that we'd gotten that pizza. Mmm, moldy pizza, my favorite.

"Other people need it more than me," I pointed out, trying to be all leader-y.

"Don't be a martyr," she said, and I heard something un-zipper.

"I'm not being a martyr. I just don't want to hog all the food, since I'm in charge of all these people." Every time I thought about my group, AJ's words echoed through my head. _Try not to kill anybody_. I knew she didn't mean for it to sound so serious, but it was like she'd spoken my biggest fear. I'd done so much to save them already, and I'll be damned if I let one of them…got hurt.

"You're stomach is going to eat itself," Dory told me sternly, placing something in my hand. The saucy stuff was red, and the slightly harder stuff was whitish, so I identified it as the old pizza. The odor that was coming from it was probably a bad sign.

"I think I'll take that chance," I said, trying to hand it back to her.

"Eat," she commanded as I felt her take my wrist and direct it toward my mouth. I rolled my eyes.

"Hey! Anybody want some pehsgha—" I was cut off as she shoved the cold, ancient, smelly pizza into my mouth. Before I could protest, she put her hand on my chin and pushed it up.

"Good boy," she cooed, patting my shoulder. I reluctantly finished the pizza, glaring in her direction the whole time. "Now, was that so hard?"

"Well, considering the cheese was practically a rock, I'd have to say yes." I tried to ignore the pleasant feeling of having real, subtenant food in me and put on a stubborn expression.

"Aw, you poor thing!" She exclaimed, feigning pity.

"We don't know how long we're going to be, getting to the next city," I said. "We have to conserve our food. We're young, and we have more energy. I think we should just save most of the food for the older people, who need more energy."

"Iggy, you physically need more food than everybody else. I mean, Nellie, Else and I need more food, but I've seen you eat. You and Nudge need the most food out of anyone here."

"We're used to rationing, though," I pointed out. "We had to eat dessert rat once. I can survive eating whatever I can find. I don't know if these people can. Can you?"

"Sure," she said, but I knew she was bluffing. Then, she said in a quieter voice, "Dessert rat?"

"Don't worry; I grilled it. I just…if something were to happen to one of them, I don't know what I'd do."

"You're doing great so far," she assured me, and I tried to believe her as I stopped everybody to set up camp for the night.

But really, we'd done everything wrong since the plane crash. Rather than dilly-dally, we should have flown/ran the survivors—since we weren't jumping, the Pack could probably even take more than one, and someone could carry me—to the closest town. Then we'd all be together, and when Max found out about Ella, we could all go together. But no—we'd waited too long, Gabriel and Angel ran off, and now we were not only separated but my group, at least, wasn't in great shape.

Max and AJ were supposed to be leaders. They'd been doing it most of their lives. They were probably sitting pretty. But I, even with Dory, could hardly call myself a leader. I was good at two things—cooking and making bombs. The fact that anybody had ever expected more from me was just proof that we'd done something wrong.

•••

Batchelder watched with satisfaction as the two came toward him. _I've finally won_, he thought savagely, smiling a nasty little smile that was both triumphant and quite satanic.

**AN: Hold back you're predictions for now. I won't make this cliché. (I hope. I'm pretty sure what I've got in mind isn't what you're thinking)**


	25. Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25

**AN: Is it weird that I enjoy being busy and having little free-time? Because you appreciate spare time so much more when you don't have a lot of it. This is what I typed up in mine: **

Aquarius waited until everybody was asleep—there was a slight pause in the babies cries that they all took advantage of—to separate himself from the group. Once he was out of hearing range, in case any of them were to wake up, he tapped the small earpiece and winced as loud static filled his head.

"They're all asleep," he reported, knowing that his Boss was listening. He was always listening. "A girl had a baby today, and that held this group up. They're almost out of food, and the blind mutant is totally clueless. So is…never mind."

"What were you going to say, 42?" The sharp voice was loud, since the Boss was the only one who could control the volume.

"Nothing of importance, sir. I was speculating." A deep sigh echoed through his ears.

"I wish to have the blind one exterminated, but we both know that is now out of the question."

"She'd recover," Rus muttered to himself, forgetting, again, to bite his tongue.

"If Maximum had only listened to my orders, we wouldn't have this problem," the Boss snapped, taking out his anger on Rus the way he did so often. "But she'll listen this time."

"And the blind one, sir?" He was getting better at saying 'sir', the way the Boss liked. There was another deep sigh.

"He is not of my concern at the moment. You know where the closest town is, you'll get there tomorrow, no? If food is too scarce, be sure not to let Her starve. If I find Her damaged in any way, you will be exterminated."

"Understood."

"It better be. Now, go to town before the group wakes up. Get yourself some food, and some for Her if it is needed. Be inconspicuous, remember. She hasn't spoken to me since the incident."

"Understood," Rus repeated.

"Good. End." Abruptly, Rus was left in silence. For reasons unbeknownst to him, he was not able to turn off the earpiece. He could only turn it on, but the Boss could do that, too, if it was an emergency.

Rus aimed his palms at the ground and blasted. He went high on the first blast, but the second was angled and propelled him forward. With all the water he'd stored up through the day, he went rather fast, leaving the small group to fend for themselves as he headed to the nearest Denny's.

•••

Max's POV

The worst part about having a Voice in your head, listening to your every pondering, is that it makes it pretty damn hard to plot against it. Naturally, I thought of about three plans as soon as I made the decision to follow the Voice's instructions, but I had to banish them from my mind. I had to find a way to make myself not _want_ to scheme…even though I did. It's the most frustrating thing I've gone through thus far, and I was about ready to smash my skull onto a rock.

"What's the plan?" Fang asked. I kept my eyes on the forest under me.

"We do what it says," I answered simply. "Save Ella." I couldn't even give him the look that said I was acting. I couldn't even think that I was acting. The Voice would hear. It saw what I saw, knew what I knew.

"You can't be serious. You're _Max_. You don't give up without a fight."

"This time I do. I guess it…found my weak spot. Ella's my family." I could tell he was trying to make eye contact with me, but I couldn't let that happen. Not if I wanted any hope of coming out of this with the desired outcome.

"Max…What if it tells you to kill someone? Or do something really bad?" I closed my eyes in frustration.

"We'll play it by ear. My sister means a lot to me."

"So that's just it? No plan, no nothing?"

"Yep."

"Fine. I'll make the plan for you. We get in there, kick its ass, get Ella, and run away."

"That won't work," I stated. "It's in my head. It'll know what I'm doing." That's probably when he realized what I was doing.

I'm a planner. I might make up plans on a whim sometimes, or off the top of my head, but going into this with no plan is the scariest thing I can think of. Being a strong fighter alone can't save you. You've got to be able to think, hard, to be successful. Whoever the Voice was took out that option. I was like a robot without controls. Helpless.

_Look down_, the Voice commanded. I did so, and saw a vague outline under the trees.

_Is that it?_

_Yes. I'm waiting for you, Maximum_. Sketchy.

I nodded at Fang, and we descended into the forest. Once we got past the canopy of trees, I could see a small-ish building. It was in a weird spot, in the middle of the woods. But I suppose, that way, nobody can hear you scream.

I shook the thought out of my head, horrified at myself. Fang and I stared at the simple brick building, which looked more like a quiet, windowless house than…whatever it was.

"You ready?" He asked, and I nodded. We strutted up to the building, and I tried my hardest not to think or feel anything, anything at all. But we all know that sometimes, you can try as hard as you possibly can and it still won't be enough.

•••

Iggy's POV

I was standing on a beam of some sort. It was metal, and glinted in the early morning sunshine. I balanced precariously, my wings outstretched for balance and fully healed. A slight breeze ruffled my hair, but I couldn't feel anything. Slowly, I glanced to my right, then my left.

Put simply, the Flock was on my right, and the Pack was on my left. But to me, it was my friends, my family, the only people I knew for the longest time on my right, and the love of my life and her friends on my left.

It's not like they were all waiting there for me to decide. Everybody was fighting something…something we couldn't see. Gazzy threw a bomb toward the Pack, but as soon as it crossed the beam—the one I was standing on—it evaporated. Max and AJ were both punching and kicking furiously at what looked like nothing. I looked at Dory, to find her screaming at the air. Her words blended together, and I couldn't tell what she was saying. But she was pretty mad, I could tell.

Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I knew that I had to step of the beam. Nobody told me, but I got this urgent sense that told me to get off—now. I looked right, left, right, left. Either way, I couldn't win.

Behind me, the beam shot up at a right angle. Nothing I could do about that. Ahead of me, it seemed to stretch on forever. But it had to end somewhere. I knew it did.

Careful not to teeter to one side, I grit my teeth and began sprinting forward.

There was no end in sight. I was scared that I was wrong, and I'd end up running forever. Alone and confused for the rest of my life.

I knew I was moving, and fast, because there was wind in my face, curling my lips back, and I saw things like trees and buildings pass by in my peripheral vision. However, every time I dared to look either direction, the two groups were still there, fighting against an unseen enemy. Unseen to me, at least. It was like they were on a conveyer belt that was set to match my exact pace.

I kept running, never tiring, despair creeping into my every thought.

Maybe, if I'd run just a little bit longer, I'd eventually come to a point where the separating beam ended, and I could jump off and we'd all live happily ever after. But I'll never know, because after a short while, I was roused back to the real world by an exceptionally fussy baby.

•••

"I suppose we should find everybody else and lead them back," Angel mused, chomping on her burger as she and Gabriel ambled down the road. They'd found the town a few hours ago, and naturally, their first thought was McDonalds. Each of them was on their fourth happy meal. That would be eight unpaid for happy meals, total, thanks to their…abilities.

Suddenly, Angel picked up on some vaguely familiar thoughts.

_Right, forward, left, forward, bite, rest, left, forward…_ The thoughts sounded like they were game commands, very organized and to the point. Angel and Gabriel both glanced up to see a boy flailing through the air. When he neared the ground, he caught himself….by blasting water into the pavement.

"Aquarius!" Angel called, identifying him immediately. She knew about his powers from the minute she saw him, but didn't take much interest in him. As a matter of fact, mutants were everywhere. Most liked to keep in hiding.

He stopped abruptly, staring at her with a mix of fear and confusion.

_Damn, it's one of the bird kids, and Gabriel_.

"My name's Angel," Angel huffed, offended. "Where are Max and everybody?" He remembered, as she said this, that the two were the ones who'd gone missing.

Angel went through some of his thoughts, discovering that the Flock and Pack had split into three groups.

"How come Max and Fang went off? I can't find it in here…" Aquarius blinked, his face blank.

"Have you forgotten?" Gabriel asked. "We're the ones who can read minds." As soon as he said this, a wave of fear washed over Aquarius, and Angel heard some thoughts she shouldn't have heard.

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed, astounded at the information she'd picked up.

"You really shouldn't snoop," Aquarius said in a grave voice. He didn't say the next words out loud, but he might as well have, because everybody in the situation heard them: _Because now I have to kill you_.

Angel couldn't help but snort. "Kill me? Yeah right. All you can do is—" She was cut off as a surge of water slammed into her, like she'd run into a solid building. Coughing, she stood from where she'd been knocked over. She had to be more careful.

_We have every advantage_, Gabriel mentally reminded her. She nodded, glaring at Aquarius. The problem was, he was trained to fight against people like her. He knew how to do things without thinking, and still have them turn out right.

He tapped his ear, and though anyone else might have been confused, Angel and Gabriel knew what he was doing. "I.D.C," he said gruffly. This stood for Information/ Data Clause, which was the code that told his Boss to send reinforcements because somebody knew too much.

"It's a shame you have to die," he said as Angel grabbed Gabriel and flew up. "You might have been useful."

Angel sped away, but she'd already seen his thoughts. She knew that those big bruiser-people would hunt her down. But at the same time, she knew that even if she couldn't outrun them, she could outthink them.

Or so she hoped.

**AN: So, can you see what I'm up to? Still confused? The next chapter will be longer than most, and it might take a few days for me to write, but I hope it's worth it!**


	26. Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

**AN: Two nights ago, I had my very first chicken finger sub. It was…bliss. I dedicate this chapter to chicken finger subs everywhere. I don't have much else to say, so here's the next chapter…**

Max's POV

As soon as I placed a foot inside the dark building, there was a strange electrical sound, and every light shot on, blinding me. It was the kind of lighting that you'd find at a football field: bright, exuberant and everywhere.

After rubbing my eyes a few times, I attempted to look around. I couldn't see very clearly, considering I had those annoying blotches in my eyes thanks to the sudden light, but the first thing I noticed was my sister, lying in a heap in the middle of the floor.

"Ella!" I gasped, rushing over. She didn't look good at all.

Ella had two black eyes and dried blood crusted around her mouth and nose, her hair glued to her forehead with it. Her arms and legs stuck out at awkward, unnatural angles, and what wasn't covered in blood was badly bruised. I pressed my index and middle fingers into her wrist and detected a light, weak pulse.

Suddenly, I was filled with volatile fury. Who did this Voice think it was, abusing my innocent little sister? I didn't even care if it could hear me; I couldn't control my thoughts of hate and violence.

"Where are you?" I hissed, glancing around the room. It looked like the stereotypical mad scientist's lab: pristine white floors, walls, and ceiling. Computers, fluids, and complicated contraptions lined the walls. But I could see nobody but Fang and Ella.

That's when I noticed a door on the far side of the room. It was a steel door, and it had a plaque that read 'Control Room'.

_Come in_, the Voice said ominously. I clenched my fists so tightly that my nails would probably pierce through my own skin and stood up. I nodded at Fang, and together we made our way across the room.

The door had one of those scanners on it where you're supposed to place your hand, just like in the spy movies. I placed my palm up against it, and was surprised to find that it had a squishy texture. My hand sunk into the gel, which was cold to the touch. The dark blue turned to bright green as it scanned my hand, and I felt sweat beading on my forehead.

I honestly didn't expect that it would work. But sure enough, after a few seconds, the door unlatched. I yanked my hand out of the gel, wiped it on my shorts, and pulled the heavy metal door.

"_Hello, Maximum_." The words were spoken both out loud and in my head, which was a strikingly odd experience.

"Show yourself," I said, blinking into the dark room, trying to make out a figure. I braced myself, waiting for the blinding lights like the other room, but instead, a single lamp was flicked on. It was a small, dim light. But it was enough.

I could make out the silhouette of the man who'd been listening to my thoughts for all this time. _This is it_, I thought to myself as he slowly shifted his face toward the light. _The moment of truth_.

You'll never guess who it was.

No, seriously, you won't. Because I've never seen him before in my life.

He was probably in his mid-forties, with dirty blonde hair and deep, dark eyes. On his head was a complex-looking helmet-type-thing, with several buttons and a lever on the right side. Behind him were a bunch of different types of microphones, and a board with flashy buttons and things scattered all over it.

"So you're the Voice," I stated, unable to keep the loath out of my voice. He shrugged.

"Most of the time." I arched an eyebrow, and he removed the helmet. "This is how you be the Voice," he explained. It didn't make much sense to me.

"Care to explain?" He sighed, settling into his seat, as if preparing for a long speech.

"When the avian DNA was grafted into you, there were also two chips. One in your wrist, to record speed, agility, and other stats, and one in your brain, which was more of a homing device.

"With this helmet, we can tap into the brain chip, and not only do we know where you are, but we can also see into you're brain." I blinked, disgusted. That was just…ew.

"You can try to remove that chip, but it'd kill you," he informed me, grinning like the psycho that he was. "When we pull down the shield—" He demonstrated, pulling a thin piece of plastic down from the top of the helmet. "—we can see what you see. And with this microphone, we can talk to you through it." He gestured to a small microphone jutting out of the left side of the helmet.

"What are the buttons for?" I asked. I may have been repulsed, but I was still curious. I wanted to know how this contraption that had been driving me crazy worked. That might make it easier to destroy it.

"Technical stuff. Now, usually I'm the only one with access to the helmet. But occasionally, my brother gets a hold of it. Or that one experiment—Dylan, is it?" So Nudge had been right—somewhat—when she said that Dylan was the Voice…

"Wait—who's your brother?" I demanded. He beamed, his eyes wild.

"Why, your father, of course. Mr. Jebidiah Batchelder."

•••

Angel and Gabriel mentally scanned the area, searching for familiar thoughts. But frankly, they didn't hear any. The hot, dry fields passed under them, looking so desolate from above.

After several minutes of searching, Angel found the familiar thoughts that had flooded her mind since she was born: those of her brother. His thoughts seemed louder to her, since they were blood related.

_Oh God, I feel a big one coming! I should probably tell everybody to get away from me…_ Angel shook her head, but was slightly less repulsed considering how relieved she was.

Gabriel heard Gazzy's thoughts, too, and Angel followed the sound.

Oddly enough, though, they didn't head any other thoughts. It was just Gazzy. Angel figured that he must have gotten separated from his group, or something. She flew faster.

Soon, the two could make out a vague figure stumbling around, alone. The thoughts were loud, and she knew that was him. She swooped down…but just as her feet touched the ground, she processed something: "I should probably tell everybody to get away from me." He wouldn't think that if he'd been separated from the group, would he?

Suddenly, the figure who she thought was her brother spun around. Needless to say, it wasn't him. They'd been tricked.

It was one of those brutes, wearing a strange looking helmet.

_It must transmit the Gasman's thoughts_, Gabriel thought to her with sinking dread. Several other brutes emerged from the forest, each wearing one of the contraptions on their heads. And then some more. Before either could make a move, they were surrounded.

Angel and Gabriel knew then that they were, for sake of better words, screwed.

**AN: Short chapter, but important all the same. Sorry for the lack of Iggy—he'll come up again soon enough. Be patient! [:**


	27. Chapter 27

CHAPTER 27

**AN: Sorry for not updating in forever…you know how it is with school and stuff. I'm seriously loosing it, though. I stared at my Biology textbook for ten minutes before I realized I was doing Global homework….it's that bad. ;D**

Iggy's POV

The third time that the baby forced me out of my sleep, I decided to just give up and get on with my day.

I had no way of knowing what time it was, and I didn't want to ask Dory, because she was probably still asleep, since she couldn't hear the baby. Who knew being deaf would actually come in handy?

I shifted into a sitting position, waiting for the head-rush to pass before standing up all the way.

"Iggy," a voice whispered. I identified it as that of Mia, the girl who'd had the baby.

"Yeah?" I responded, my voice at full volume. I didn't see the point of whispering; it's not like my voice would be any louder than the baby's.

"Will you hold Eva for me while I take a quick potty break?"

"Sure," I said, making my way toward the cries. "What time is it?"

"A little after five," she replied, gently setting Eva in my open arms. "Thank you so much for this."

"No problem." She scampered off, and I cradled the little baby to my chest. She continued to scream, and I rocked her back and forth. I adjusted her position a few more times, until she stopped crying.

"Good girl," I murmured. She responded with those silly noises that babies make when their trying to say something. "I completely agree," I said, beaming.

"You're so good at that," Dory noted from behind me, causing me to jump a little. There was a shuffling, and I heard as she sat down beside me.

"It's not that hard," I responded. "You just have to mimic the positions that they'd be in when they were in their mom's stomach, since that's what they're used to."

"And you know this how?" My cheeks reddened. In reality, I'd overheard it as Nudge was watching some parenting show, but I didn't want to admit that.

"Because I'm psychic. Duh." She laughed.

"Oh, of course." I smiled, just as the phone in my pocket began to vibrate.

"Can you get that?" I asked.

"Umm, Iggy, I'm deaf. I can't really talk on the phone."

"Right. Here." I carefully handed her the baby, sure to keep its position the same. I didn't really like handing Eva off, but I trusted Dory, obviously. How could you not? I flipped the phone open.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Iggy?" I didn't identify the voice at first, but I recognized the alarm in it.

"Yeah?"

"This is Max's mom. Where are you?"

"Umm, I don't know? Is Max there with you?"

"No! She and Fang came here last night, but now they're gone. I think they went to find Ella, but anything could have happened!" My brow furrowed. It was too early for actually thinking.

"Ella?"

"She went missing yesterday! Everybody's missing!" I internally groaned.

"Uh, well, we should…"

"Come to my house now," Mrs. Martinez commanded. "Bring the whole Flock, we need everybody." I felt sweat beading on my forehead—clearly Max hadn't done her share of talking.

"Err, well, that's not exactly going to happen." She waited for me to explain, and soon it was just spilling out, the words sputtering from my lips before I could help it. "See, I'm with a bunch of strangers, and we're sort lost because there was a plane crash. And then Angel and Gabriel went missing so we split up and AJ and Damian and Gazzy and Fuzz are looking for them. And then Max and Fang came to find you so I'm in charge of everybody else and some chick just had a freaking _baby_ and if this older woman doesn't get her meds she's gonna _die_!"

My voice rose with every word, to the point that I was pretty much shouting by the end of it. Dory rubbed my arm, but that did nothing to comfort me. I believe the correct term is 'freaking out'. Somehow, the focus of this whole ordeal ended up on me. _Me!_ I never signed up for this; this is _Max's_ job.

After a few moments of utter silence on the other end, Mrs. Martinez sucked in a breath.

"These new friends," she said slowly, seeming to pick the most meaningless topic out of everything to start with. "They're not…they can't be the _Pack_, right?"

"Yeah, that's them," I said quietly, trying to calm down.

"Oh Lord. Oh my. This is not good. This isn't good at all." I blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"As if he needs another _reason_!" She gasped, and I just sat there, confused. Who's 'he' and what in the world was she talking about? "Iggy, listen to me, get away from the Pack. You have to. Go find Angel and Gazzy and get away from them now."

"What? No way!"

"You don't understand; this is extremely vital—"

"I'm not going to, and that's final," I stated.

"Ig—"

"I've got stuff to do. 'Extremely vital' stuff. Once I save the day here, I'll head over to Mesa with _everybody_." I snapped the phone shut angrily just as the baby started to fuss again.

"I think he's colicky," Dory concluded when she couldn't get her to shut up.

"_She's_ a baby, and that's just what they do," I responded, holding out my arms. Once Eva was in them, I shifted and adjusted, and instantly she stopped crying.

"You're insane," Dory said gravely, and I smiled weakly. She noticed my mood. "Who was on the phone?" I shook my head.

"It's a long story. But we better start walking…I actually have a vague idea of what to do."

•••

Ella was having trouble distinguishing the difference between sleep and awake, between consciousness and unconsciousness, between dream and reality. The lines between fact and fiction were indistinguishable, swirled and mashed like Trix yogurt.

Part of her was sure she'd already choked herself and died, but at the same time, death wouldn't bring so much pain, would it? The pain never seemed to subside. She tried to ignore it, tried everything…and it was still there.

She didn't know what was even going on anymore. At one point, she thought she'd heard Max's voice. How could Max find her? Was the deep-voiced guy still there? Did he hurt her?

Questions flooded through Ella's mind like water through a broken dam, but none of them came with answers. They taunted and tormented her, dancing around in her mind, to the point of insanity.

An image drifted into Ella's brain. It was of a dog on a treadmill, eyes fixed on a dangling piece of meat. It ran after the food, but never ran fast enough to catch it. Onlookers laughed; _how silly it was that the dog thought it would actually get anywhere_.

Max may or may not have been there to save her. But regardless, Ella knew she was already too far to be saved.

•••

Valencia Martinez sat at her dining room table, alone, with her head in her hands.

Someone had screwed up. Maybe it was her, maybe it was Max… it didn't really matter. All that mattered was the fact that something had gone horribly wrong. Again. She supposed they were a little over due—it had been a little over a month since something catastrophic went down.

Jamison didn't need another thing to hold against Max, another reason to use her. He couldn't use his own child, of _course_ not. He had to use _her_ daughter to do his dirty work. And now he'd dragged the other into it as well.

Val wasn't a very demanding, needy woman. She always knew what she wanted. And right now, all she wanted was her family to be safe. She could deal with the rest, so long as they were okay. But at the moment…she might not even have that.

There was a knock at the door, and she looked up to see Jeb rushing in.

"Did you get a hold of Iggy yet?" He asked, out of breath. She shook her head, holding up the phone.

"He's not answering," she said in a flat monotone. A rebellious, hormonal hybrid was just what she needed at the moment, after all. Jeb nodded, not surprised.

"That's expected. Listen, we'll trace the call, and send something out for him—"

"Force isn't going to work. Plus, the only things you can send out are those new Flyboys, and what do you think he'll think when he sees—well, _hears_—those?" He glanced at her pleadingly.

"What do we do, then? We have to get a hold of him somehow, at least point him in the right direction."

"I have no idea." Jeb sighed.

"Well, I suppose we'll just have to go out and find him on our own." Val shook her head.

"I want to stay here, in case Ella comes back."

"I…I don't think you have to worry about that right at this moment." Her stomach dropped. But Iggy would be too suspicious to listen if just Jeb showed up…so she nodded anyway and followed him outside.


	28. Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

**AN: I love how the night before the climax of one of my busiest weeks yet is the night I manage to update…Hah. It's homecoming week, tomorrow's the dance/game/parade and I'm super excited! **

_ Max's POV_

Mind. Blown.

I couldn't think straight; it was just such a WTF moment.

I like to think of myself as an experienced person, you know. There's no denying that the Flock and I have seen some…interesting things in our time. But I have to admit, I never saw that one coming.

The worst part was that I didn't even really have any time to fully comprehend everything, seeing as so many other things had to be discussed.

"So you're my uncle," I said, not letting him have surprise on his side. I was fully aware that he wasn't wearing the helmet anymore, so he had no idea what I was thinking. Plans formed and reformed in my mind. "Glad we're having this little reunion here. Did you invite Grandpa?"

Mr….well I still don't know what his name is, let's just call him Uncle for now. Anyway, Uncle disregarded my comment, probably already having his whole speech planned out.

"Jeb's my younger brother. We both worked at the School for a while, but I got fed up with them a long time ago. They work too slowly over there; there's too much standing around and waiting for things to happen. So, I took matters into my own hands. Jeb and I grew apart, but I'm still on speaking terms with him. Sometimes, though, we get upset with each other. But right now, I'm only upset with his offspring."

"That being me, right? Or is it another one of Jeb's kids…?" Uncle ignored me once again.

"You disobeyed me, Max. You went to find that one—" He jabbed his thumb at Fang. "—and you made connections with the Pack."

"What is it that you have against them, anyway? What's so wrong about them?"

"It's what's wrong with you, that I have a problem with. You can't escape trouble, Max, and you _never_ listen to me." I shrugged.

"So?"

"I don't want you dragging your danger and horrendous mannerisms onto my Pack!" He finally concluded.

"_Your_ Pack?" He locked eyes with me.

"Yes, _my_ Pack. I created them. _Especially_ my daughter. And I've been doing everything to keep them away from you. But now you've gone and ruined everything!" At first, I assumed that his daughter was AJ. But then I remembered her mentioning that her name was Alden-Jane, in honor of her parents whom she never met. So that left Nellie and Dory. If worst came to worst, I supposed we could avoid the Pack until Uncle was off our backs.

"You're daughter being…?"

"Fedora." I nodded, trying to match the features (they had the same noise and cheeks) and comprehend everything…when I realized something.

"It's too late to leave," I told him.

"Excuse me?"

"Dory and Iggy are together. I'm not going to split them up because it's your preference." Something angry and ugly flashed through Uncle's eyes for a moment, but it was quickly replaced by a calm façade.

"So I've been told. That made me very angry, you know. It wouldn't have happened if you'd just listened to me. But I've come up with an easy compromise." He paused, as if for dramatic effect. I raised an eyebrow.

"Which is?" I prompted.

"If…Iggy…and Dory really like each other, then Iggy will choose to stay with her. I don't want to see my daughter hurt. So Iggy will be allowed to choose—the Flock or the Pack."

"You can't ask him to choose!" I exclaimed. It was like me picking Fang or the Flock. An impossible decision.

"You're right. But you can." I narrowed my eyes.

"And if I don't?" He grinned.

"You're sisters about ready to go. And once she's gone, I'll go find your mother. And if it gets that far, I'll start picking off the Flock."

"You wouldn't do that. You need us too much." He arched one eyebrow.

"Would you like to put money on that? We already have Angel cornered, and I have people watching Gazzy and Nudge. In fact, if my spy gets annoyed, he might just kill Nudge for the fun of it. The only ones I _really_ need are you and Fang." My blood was running cold. I didn't know if he was bluffing or not, but it was too risky to take chances.

"So all I have to do is leave the Pack and ask Iggy that itty bitty question, and then we're free?" Uncle laughed humorlessly.

"Maximum, I would think you to be less naïve then that. Meeting the Pack wasn't the only thing you did wrong. You went after Fang, remember? Fang, you still have things to do. You're mutant hunt wasn't going to well, was it? One stripper is the best you can do?" I could sense Fang's pronounced glare without looking at him.

"Do you want to know my plan, Maximum?"

"No," I spat.

"Yes, you do. It involves you. See, before the world is destroyed—" He said it as if the end of the world was about the equivalent to a trip to the dentist. "—each member of your Flock will have his or her own group of mutants. That way, it will be easier to individually train each one. If it's needed, Damian will get his own group, too, but I don't want to split up the whole Pack, because they're like kids to me. And if I have to kill off the rest of your Flock to make you listen to me, it won't be hard to replace them."

"So that's it? You're going to demand us to split up, with the only reward being our lives?"

"I'm not a bad man, like you think. I just like things to go my way. But if you must ask, there will be benefits. I can enhance so much, give you unimaginable powers, and it won't be putting your life at risk like at the School. You'll no longer be test subjects—we have others for that."

"And because it's not us being tested on, that makes it okay? Makes total sense."

"Sometimes, sacrifices must be made. So, Max, what do you say? Will you do as I say, or let your sister parish?" Right on cue, the door behind me was thrust open, and two Bruisers came in, holding Ella by each arm. They dropped her on the ground, and one placed a foot on her back.

"You want to know my answer?" Uncle nodded expectantly. I smiled. "Suck it." And then I lunged. My biggest mistake yet.

•••

Iggy's POV

"Ummm….Attention everyone….Listen up…." I tried half-heartedly.

"EVERYBODY SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO IGGY!" Dory bellowed. The conversations ended abruptly, and not even the baby dared to make a peep. I smiled nervously.

"Thanks," I mumbled. "So, there's a new game plan. I probably should have decided this right off the bat…but I didn't. So who, besides Mia, has a phone on them right now?"

"Me," A few voices responded. I grinned; that was the key to my plan.

"Good, good. Well, before we do anything, everybody with a phone has to program all of the other phone's numbers into theirs. Nudge has Mia's, which I'll refer to as the group phone for now.

"First, we call 911. We have to get the police looking, even if they have no clue where to look. We'll tell them everything we know to date about the crash. Next, Nudge and Nellie will take one phone and look for the closest town. I know you've noticed our abilities by now, so you'll know that they'll get there quickly, or at least quicker than us as a group.

"We'll all go that way—" I pointed in the direction I believed to be north. "—looking for food and water. We'll mark our tracks with whatever we can every once and a while so that when Nudge and Nellie come back, we can lead them to us. When they do come back, they'll lead us to the nearest town, where we can find a hospital, or even a pay phone, and you guys can probably take care of yourselves from there, right?" There was a murmured of 'yes's.

I smiled faintly beneath my mask of worry and uncertainty. At least some things were going right.


	29. Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29

**AN: You guys should go see **_**It's Kind of a Funny Story**_**. It's a great book/movie. :]**

Max's POV

I guess that not-thinking is a habit that you're stuck with once you try it one time. I was so used to doing that from earlier, when I couldn't, that now it came easy. At least, that's what I'm going off of for now. I can't think of a better explanation.

Anyway, back to the whole biggest-mistake-yet situation. I lunged, my arms both defending and attacking at the same time, but he caught them. Too quickly. Like he knew they were coming.

He tapped his ear.

"Did you really think I trusted you enough to stop listening to your thoughts all together? I can't talk to you or see what you're seeing, but this little earpiece gives me the vague outline of your—" There was a slamming, crunching sound that echoed through the room.

It took me a second to understand what had happened. Fang had thrown himself at Uncle, who was now gasping for breath under his weight. Because Uncle had left a vital part out of equation out: Fang was here, and his thoughts were all his. He could do whatever he wanted.

Just as I readied myself for an attack, I heard another, even worse cracking sound. The sound of bone snapping. I swear, at that moment, my organs shut down. Everything just stopped. A single cry escaped my lips, two measly little syllables.

"_Ella_!"

•••

Suddenly, the pain just stopped. Ella tried to move the muscles in her face just enough to form a little smile of pleasure. Warmth and nothingness encompassed her body, the agony ending abruptly, vanishing into thin air. Poof.

So this is what death feels like, she mused. It wasn't as bad as she expected. In a sick way, it was even comfortable. She tried to worry, but her preoccupations slid away like fuzzy socks on hardwood. Why worry when you couldn't change it all, anyway? Why bother? It was just wasted energy.

The torture…it was over. She felt so liberated, so very _alive_ that she couldn't believe that she was, in fact, dead. At least, she thought she was. And at this point, she almost hoped that was the case.

•••

Max's POV

Somehow, my hands ended up around Uncle's throat. He tried to pry me off, but Fang was still pinning him down, and he wasn't the strongest of men.

The Brutes tried to pull me away, too, but there was no way they'd stop me. Uncle's face was a sickly shade of purple by the time the reinforcements showed up, just seconds later. It was almost like a montage from there. Dreamlike. I imagined depressing music and slow motion as they gripped my limbs and thrust me backward, like a bad war movie.

I felt my throat close up, and tears started to pool around my eyes, but I continued to thrash nonetheless. Giving up is the worst form of defeat.

I let myself glance at Ella: a distorted, limp figure sprawled out on the floor. The tears spilled over. They just couldn't do this. But they did. _He_ did.

"You've been naughty," Uncle said.

"Go die," I spat back with emphasis, glaring through tears. It was impossible to think that he was technically more human than I was. Unfathomable.

"I'm afraid I can't do that," he responded easily. "And frankly, you've pissed me off." He turned to the guards. "Lock them up. Leave the body with them, too. She needs to learn her lesson."

•••

Iggy's POV

Lauretta was draped over my left arm, and my right arm was wrapped around Dory's shoulders. If someone tried to tickle me right now, I'd be totally screwed. But, as you can imagine, that wasn't on my top list of concerns.

See, while on the outside I appeared totally lax, on the inside, my brain was eating away at itself in worry.

Nudge and Nellie had set off less than an hour ago, and I hadn't stopped thinking about them ever since. Until now.

"You hear that?" I asked Dory.

"Loud and clear," she joked sarcastically. "I'm really good at hearing, remember?" I would have backtracked immediately, but I was too distracted.

"It sounds like…"

"Hey, is that a helicopter?" Aaron called.

It definitely was. I could hear the sputtering blades as they gradually grew nearer. But was the helicopter a good thing, or a bad thing? Should we wave it down, or try to hide? Were there police inside, or Brutes? Life or death?

"Carry on as normal," I decided.

"Why?" Mia wondered, seeming taken aback at my decision.

"Because we don't know who's in that helicopter. We don't want to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves, in case they're bad, but we don't want to hide, in case they're good."

"That's reasonable," she mumbled, and we kept on walking like nothing unusual was happening.

That seemed easy enough for them. But me, I was flipping out on the inside.

As much as I loath silence, extremely loud noises were even worse for me. The helicopter, though still a distance away, was absolutely ear-splitting for me. It felt as though my head was being squished between two bowling balls, the pressure nearly cracking my skull.

I clamped my hands over my ears, but that did little to stop the overwhelming noise that grew louder by the second. I felt sweat dripping down my forehead as I realized I was totally defenseless. I couldn't see, couldn't hear, and it was becoming hard to move.

A wall of air crashed into me, almost knocking me off my feet. That's when I knew the helicopter was upon us.

•••

Rus was more than nervous. This wasn't supposed to happen. It would be fine if it was just a police helicopter or something, but he had a sinking feeling that it wasn't.

He tapped on his earpiece and hoped nobody would notice. Not that they would do anything if they did. He appeared to be just a kid, after all.

"Boss," he whispered, but there was no answer. The deafening helicopter was probably making it hard to hear. "_Boss!_"

"_BOSS!_" Suddenly, his earpiece was ripped out of his ear.

"Ow!" Rus exclaimed, looking up to see who'd assaulted him. He'd never been more surprised in his life.

It was the old guy. Harry. Standing over him with accusing eyes.

"Can you please give that back?" Rus asked sweetly.

"I worked with the CIA for twenty-seven years," Harry spat in a rusty old voice. "Now, I don't know who you work for, but I know treason when I see it." He then proceeded to throw the earpiece on the ground, and smash his heel into it. Rus almost cried as wires popped out. Harry picked up the remains. He pulled a pocket knife out of his belt loop and snipped the exposed wires carefully, as if deactivating an explosive.

"Why would you do that?" Rus gasped.

"I'm no fool," Harry scoffed, making quick work. Finally, satisfied with himself, he handed the remnants of the earpiece back to Rus. "Good luck contacting your boss with this."

"You'll pay," Rus threatened with a cold, much-older-than-ten voice. Harry laughed darkly and started back toward the group, which was anxiously awaiting the landing helicopter.

"If I had a nickel for every time I heard that," he called over his shoulder. Rus shuddered, his cocky disposition gone in a flash. And he almost vomited when he saw who was driving the helicopter.

Karma's a bitch….but only if you are.

**AN: Heh, I'm starting to like Harry.**


	30. Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

**AN: So, I have this Mexican baby doll for the weekend for my Child Health and Development class. He wouldn't stop crying so I popped out his batteries. Does this make me a horrible person? Heh heh without further ado, chapter 30!**

Iggy's POV

The blades of the chopper slowed to a stop, and after that, there was nothing. My ears pounded, the feeling somewhat like laying in the silence of your bed after a rock concert, but amplified. It was like I _wanted_ the deafening noise now; I wanted _anything_.

And I got something. The click of the door, and a shuffling noise as whoever was in the copter got out. A muted 'umf'. And then they spoke.

"Iggy." My guard flew up at the sound of his voice.

"Jeb," I responded impassively.

"Listen, you have to—"

"I already know what you want," I said brusquely. "And it's not going to happen."

"Iggy, you've got to at least listen to our reasoning," Dr. Martinez said.

"Dr. Martinez?" I wondered, surprised to hear her voice. She was the last person I'd expect to come out here, especially with Jeb.

"Come over here," she said gently. Cautiously, I stepped forward. One of them—I guessed it was Max's mom since the hand was tiny—grabbed my wrist, and led me away from the others.

"The survivors…"

"Fedora can watch them for a few minutes," Jeb said.

"Her name's Dory," I muttered, knowing how much she hated her full name.

"She's actually who we want to talk about," Dr. Martinez said nervously.

"Yeah, you're going to tell me I have to leave her, and I'm going to say no, and you're going to get mad, right?"

"Just listen," Jeb commanded, getting aggravated. "Do you understand who Dory is?"

"Yeah. She's my girlfriend. I love her. She's beautiful, and—"

"Her biological father is my brother," Jeb stated. I blinked.

"Really? That's…cool. How come we never met?"

"Because Jamison and I don't always get along. Like now, for instance. He wants to use my daughter for his benefit, and he has her and Ella right now. And Fang. He won't want to kill Max or Fang, because that would be a waste in his mind, but he'll have no problem killing Ella." I was quiet for a few minutes, digesting the information. Looks I might have some trouble with the in-law.

"Does Dory know?" I demanded.

"No," Jeb answered. "Dory hasn't spoken to him in years. She hates him." I tried not to smile; I knew Dory had good judgment.

"Why does she hate him?"

"Why would she not? He took the Pack out of the School, only to keep them in cages in his own laboratory. She used to have another member in her Pack, a girl named Lupe, but he executed her right in front of Dory because she had extra fur on her cheeks. Then he decided to set the Pack free, because in a sick way, he'd always loved Dory. But now she won't look at him."

"I wouldn't either!" I exclaimed. "But how in the world did he capture Max?" Jeb didn't answer right away, and I quickly came to the conclusion that he didn't want to tell me something.

"Jamison…he's a brilliant man. So brilliant, in fact, that he's the one who invented Max's Voice."

"…Dory's dad is the Voice?"

"It's actually a contraption, but he's usually the one behind it. Occasionally, I'll borrow his machine, or have someone else use it, but yes, my brother is primarily the Voice."

"Well fuck that!"

"Language," Dr. Martinez muttered. That reminded me.

"If Dory hates her dad so much, why does it matter if we hang out with her and the Pack?"

"He's always been protective of the Pack," Jeb explained. "He gives them quite a lot of freedom, but he certainly doesn't want them intermixed with the my Flock. He wants you involved with things that he doesn't want his daughter anywhere near."

I thought about it for a few minutes. I remembered my latest dream, with the metal beam that I was walking across. It truly was a choice between Dory and the Flock. Unfortunatly for mister Dory's Dad, I chose both.

"There's got to be a middle," I said. "Can't we go talk to your brother, and save Max and Ella etc?"

"That's what I came here to get you for. Where's Nudge?"

"She's going to find the next town, with Nellie. Will we all fit in the chopper?"

"No. Only you and Nudge are coming." I laughed in his face.

"That's funny, it really is. But see, for once, I actually have this thing called _responsibility_. I've got to save all these people. And you're even more psycho than I thought if you think I'm going without Dory."

"There's simply not enough room for all those people."

"Well that sucks. You can go talk to your brother on your own."

"The next town is only a few miles in the direction you're headed. They can make it there on their own."

"No they can't. The one woman can't even walk! How about you meet us at the town."

"There's not enough time for that! Ella could be dieing as we speak! You're not supposed to be in charge of anything anyway!" Huh. That stung a little.

"Wanna bet?" I retorted before heading back to the group.

And walking into the helicopter.

Let's just pretend that didn't happen, okay?

I got up and kept walking, with my hands out front this time, but Jeb caught be by the shoulder and spun me around.

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "That was mean."

"Whatever. Listen, this is what's going to happen: When Nudge and Nellie get back, the two of them plus Dory, Else and I will take as many people as we can and go to the next town. The rest of the people will go with you in the helicopter, and we'll meet up wherever this city is. Then, the five mutants and you guys will pack into the helicopter, and we'll fly to your brother's lab. Once we save Max and Ella and Fang, we'll come back with a bigger chopper and find AJ, Damian, Fuzz, Gazzy, Angel, and Gabriel. Then I'll stop trying to be a leader and Max will take over. Got it?"

Jeb was silent, probably looking for loopholes in my plan. I'm not _supposed_ to be the one making plans, after all.

"I suppose that's applicable. Can you fly?"

"Yeah," I bluffed. I probably could, anyway. I was willing to take that chance.

"Okay…"

"Jeb, admit it, it's a good plan," Dr. Martinez said.

"All right. We'll go with Iggy's plan, I guess." I grinned with pride and followed them back to the rest of the group, avoiding the chopper this time. As we grew closer, I heard Nudge's voice, and my heart swelled with pride.

"Nudge!" I shouted.

"I'm back!" She laughed. "It wasn't actually that far. What's going on? What's Jeb doing here? Is he good now or bad? I can't remember. He's pretty indecisive. I used a big word, aren't you proud? Else told me it!"

"Calm down," I murmured. "Okay, so the plan is—"

"Whoa," Jeb interrupted. "What the Hell is Aquarius doing here?"

•••

Angel did not like being man-handled. But this was worse than that. This was being absolutely annihilated.

She couldn't read minds. She couldn't do _anything_! They'd put some sort of helmet on both her and Gabriel, and now the world was silent. The only thoughts in her head we were own, and she utterly could not handle it. How did normal people survive this way? She was so defenseless. How would she know if someone was going to attack her?

"Not so tough without your powers, huh?" One of those big guys asked condescendingly. Angel had no response. She knew that he was right. Without her mind powers, she might as well be a plain ol' bird.

She couldn't even talk to Gabriel, devise some sort of escape plan. She glanced down at the shackles around her wrists and feet. She couldn't persuade the Brutes to unlock them.

"Where are we going?" She wondered feebly, trying to play the weak innocent little-girl act. Although it was hardly an act anymore.

"Don't worry about it," the biggest Brute answered.

"I want to know."

"You'll see."

"Tell me!" Before she could whine any more, he hit her in the stomach. The McDonalds rose up and out on impact, and her head swam. She should have seen that coming. But she couldn't bear not being able to get the answers she wanted. How did other people get answers? They actually had to wait for someone to tell them? Didn't they realize that people _always_ lie?

Angel scrunched her right shoulder up, trying to pry off the helmet, but it did nothing. The helmet was too tight, and anyway, there was a complicated strap system.

If she still had her mind powers, she'd signal Gabriel to help her with her helmet, and she'd help him with his. But she didn't.

She was just a plain old bird kid. Her worst nightmare.


	31. Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31

**AN: This chapter is rather depressing, but please read on!**

Iggy's POV

Wait, hold up. How in the _world_ does Jeb know Rus?

The next time Jeb spoke, suspicion dripped from his every syllable.

"He's one of my brother's agents," he said warily. You know, guys really shouldn't gasp. It seems like a sort of feminine act, you know? But at least when I gasped now, it was nice and discreet. Anyway, though, I was completely taken by surprise.

"W…_What?_"

"Who's your brother?" Dory wondered innocently. "Why is Iggy making that face?" I snapped my jaw shut.

"You're dad," I mumbled.

"Say that again?"

"You're dad," I said, actually moving my mouth. She was quiet, and I reached forward to comfort her, but my hands fell through empty air.

"What are you talking about, Iggy?"

"It's a long story," I said. "But I'll explain later. Right now, we have to talk about Aqu—"

"What are you talking about?" She repeated in a tight voice, the words seeping out of clenched teeth.

Now was anything _but_ a good time to discuss this. The survivors who _weren't_ spies of the enemy didn't need to hear this whole complicated story, and I didn't want Dory to do anything irrational in front of them. I could already tell that this was a soft spot for her. We needed to be calm in front of them, or they might not trust us.

"I promise, I'll tell you in the helicopter," I assured her.

"What did you say about my father?" Her voice was clipped and angry.

"We'll explain everything. Just not…here."

"I don't have a dad!" She screamed, checking her elbow into my stomach as she strode past me.

I was caught between going after her and handling the Aquarius situation. Jeb must have seen the indecision in my eyes, because he said, "I'll deal with Aquarius."

"Thanks," I muttered, not sure what exactly I was thanking him for, before running off to the sound of Dory's footsteps.

"Dory?" I called, listening hard. I heard the faint sound of her breathing, increasing in pace as I listened.

"Go aw-way!" She shouted, her voice breaking on the second syllable of 'away'.

"Are you okay?" I murmured. There was no response, but I imagined she was nodding 'yes'. When she did speak, her voice came out muffled and distorted.

"I'm fine." Following this, the biggest lie I've ever heard, was a sharp gasp for air. And then another. By the time I sat down next to her, she was softly crying to herself.

Unsure of what to say, I scooped her up and sat her on my lap, twining my arms around her torso. I found her cheek, red under my fingers, and wiped a tear away.

"It's just—" She tried, but her words dissolved into a sob. I wondered if I was supposed to say something deep and profound right now, or maybe just kiss her, because that's what happens in the movies. But I was at a loss for words, and kissing her seemed like the stupidest thing to do right now, so I just held her and let her cry.

"I'm such an idiot!" She blubbered.

"No you're not," I mumbled awkwardly. That's me; I'm practically Confucius. Her sobs slowly reduced to cries, then to whimpers, and finally nothing but sniffles.

"I'm sorry," She said after a deep breath. "This is just…I'm just…I thought he was going to leave me alone."

"He's leaving _you_ alone. That's the problem, actually." Dory shifted uncomfortably in my arms.

"Excuse me?" I sighed.

"He doesn't want our Flock and your Pack associated. He wants us to do his dirty work, and you not to be involved. So he kidnapped Max, her sister Ella, and Fang," I explained. She didn't say anything, and I felt a single tear drop to my hand.

•••

Dory's throat closed up again. She tried not to break down again, but she was on the edge looking over. There weren't many things in this world that could make her cry, but the though of her….father….was one of them. There was no erasing what he'd done to her.

The man was sick in the head, morbid, warped, twisted. Dory was more than ashamed to inherit his jeans…sometimes she loathed herself because of it. Because, when she thought about her 'dad', a lot of images came to her mind. Lupe's decapitated head bouncing off the cold tile floor, the calluses on her palms from gripping the hard metal bars, all the messed up experiments that she'd met and talked to before their brutal death…and yet nothing he'd put her through was worse than the first. She would never, ever forgive him for it.

Dory's mother.

She was a beautiful woman. Gabriella Harrisburg was tall and lanky, with the same untamable brunette hair as her daughter, but her eyes were a clear, grey-ish blue that looked entirely too serious, even when she was little. She would have gone places, it was obvious. Gabby was brilliant, with an outstanding work ethic and ideas that kept people up at night.

She had those haunting eyes on the prize from a very young age, knowing exactly how everything was going to happen. She was going to study medicine, become a leading oncologist. Maybe she would have found a cure for cancer; she was well on her way. But then, in her freshman year of college, Jamison Batchelder discovered her.

He was looking for someone for his latest project. Jamison was the kind of guy who did whatever he had to, whatever he wanted, so long as he got to his goal. He knew nothing of Gabriella and her aspirations, her family, her studies, her life. He just saw her, he wanted her, and that was that.

According to Dory's father, there was nothing forceful about it—in the beginning.

"She loved me, back then," he told her one night as she sat in the corner of her cage, the trembling hands clasped over her ears doing nothing to keep his voice from seeping into her head. She would have given anything to be deaf, then. "I had her eating out of my palm. Until, she was no longer hungry. But I'd already made up my mind at that point, and you were already growing."

Dory remembered gazing at the empty cage across from her. It was far nice, with a bed, a bathroom, a lounge chair, a TV, a couch, a desk. It wasn't meant for experiments, after all. It was where Gabriella had spent 8 of the 9 months of her pregnancy. Some nights, when Dory felt most alone, she'd imagine her mother gripping the bars of her own cage, and staring out desperately at her.

"You were much easier for your mother than you are for me," Jamison had told her. "You were nice and small, easy to carry. You didn't give her any problems the whole pregnancy. Even your birth was as easy as they come." Dory would always know what would come next. Her stomach would drop in anticipation. Jamison always told his stories in the same order—when Dory could hear them, at least.

"She did a good job taking care of you for the first three years of your life. Even if she hated you. She thought you were ugly, with your tail and ears. But after all, who doesn't? You're stuck somewhere in between, and you always will be. But that's besides the point. You probably don't remember her death, do you? You were so oblivious, I don't even think you realized what was happening."

But Dory did. She would always remember it, clear as day. And Jamison knew it. He enjoyed watching the pain take over her features every time he described it. Despite the fact that he knew she remembered, he'd always change the story to whatever it was in his warped sense of reality.

"You laughed when I took off her arm," he'd say. "It was like a doll." But Dory had screamed, almost as loud as her mother. "You thought it was a riot when I hit her with it." No, she'd vomited and buried her head in her pillow. "And oh, you applauded me when she'd finally collapsed onto the floor. I'm sure her screaming was hurting your ears." The only screaming Dory'd been able to hear was her own. It was the only sound she could remember. Even though she'd had her hearing for several years later, once it was gone, that blood curling scream was the only thing that stuck with her.

Now she glanced up at Iggy. She couldn't tell him what'd happened to her, not now. They'd never be the same, as a couple, again. When something bad happens, and people know about it, it defines you. Dory didn't want to be defined by the satanic demon who's 23 chromosomes sat inside her.

But part of her was sure it was already too late.

She looked up into his eyes, unfocused and staring somewhere into the distance. They were similar in color to her mothers, but didn't have the sharp edge that she remembered. Maybe Gabriella's eyes hadn't always been so closed-off, maybe it only came once Jamison had ruined her life.

Dory's eyes welled up again. She couldn't help it, every time she thought about all that had been lost. In Jamison's mind, it was one of many. He was a murderer, it was what he did. But Gabriella was an amazing person, Dory knew that much. She could have saved so many lives, she could have been a hero. But now she rested, disembodied, deep beneath the earth.

Her only mistake was existing.

•••

Jeb watched as Iggy and Dory made their way back to him and the others. He'd already sent Aquarius with the several Flyboys that he'd brought as backup, and they were on their way to a branch of Itex nearby, out of harm's way. But he knew they really had to get moving, if Max and Ella and Fang had any hope.

Iggy walked forward in slow, long, unsure strides, while Dory sauntered foreword purposefully, her eyes locked on Jeb's with nothing but loathe. When they arrived to the semi-circle that everyone had subconsciously formed, Iggy cleared his throat.

"Is Rus still here?"

"No," Jeb answered. "We took care of him. He's on his way to Itex now. Why don't you tell your group about the plan?" Iggy nodded, and began to talk about what was going to happen.

Jeb wasn't listening, though. He was too distracted by the daggers being stared into him. When he finally met his niece's eyes, she glared and walked over to him. Hand gripping his arm, she dragged him away from the group.

"You're _his_ brother," she spat, her eyes darkened and rimmed in crimson.

"Yes," Jeb said. He couldn't imagine how she was feeling, what with the way he'd treated her growing up.

"How can you say that so easily?" Dory demanded. "Are you as big of a scum-psycho-demonic-freak as he is?"

"I know he treated you poorly—" She cut him off with a piercing, humorless cackle.

"Treated me poorly? That's what you want to call it?" Her voice rose with the blood in her face. "He locked me in a cage," she said with growing tension. "He took away my hearing. He cut off my tail hoping it would grow back longer. He _killed_ my _best friend_. YOU'RE FUCKING BROTHER DISMEMBERED MY MOTHER IN FRONT OF ME WHEN I WAS THREE GOD DAMN YEARS OLD!" Her screams could be heard from the next town over, let alone the group ten yards away.

Jeb watched as the small congregation turned to stare in astonishment. Out of all of the faces, though, Iggy's stood out. His already pale face was an eerie shade of white, his unseeing eyes a mixture of devastation, regret, contempt and betrayal.

"You're mother died of cancer…" Jeb muttered, confused. Dory stared him down.

"You're either as evil as my father, or just really stupid," she said gravelly, her voice haunting. "Either way, the only cancer my mother died from was Jamison Batchelder."

**AN: So, I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It's pretty creepy and emo. But please let me know what you think. I'm not review hungry or anything but some words of wisdom could brighten my awful week (:**

**And I've said this before, but this time I mean it: the end is in sight! I'm guesstimating…5 to 7 more chapters(?) give or take. **


	32. Chapter 32

CHAPTER 32

**AN: Hello all! Finally updating again. You know how it is. Sorry for the wait!**

Iggy's POV

My arm was tightly wrapped around Dory's waist, as it had been since we'd started off. I was still trying to process what she'd screamed at Jeb, but she didn't seem to want anything to do with it, so we walked in comfortable silence.

The helicopter was miles ahead of us, jam-packed with Mia, Eva, Lauretta, and Jess. That left me with Dave, Harry, Aaron, Marion and Aidan. Nudge and Nellie were basically leading, as Dory and I trailed behind quietly, lost in our own thoughts.

I couldn't fathom what Dory had said. Dismembered? What kind of sick, _sick_ man was this? I wondered how Dory was able to walk around day to day, seeming perfectly content, with these memories locked up inside of her. I guess it was a long time ago…but she still had to be pretty strong to get past it.

And still, I didn't know what to say. I was just unable to wrap my mind around the concept of such a sadistic person. Somehow, I felt like sympathy was the opposite of what Dory wanted. She wasn't that kind of person.

I nudged her shoulder, deciding that I had to say _something_, anything.

"Are you okay?" I asked. It seemed like the best place to start.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she muttered.

"I don't believe you."

"Why not?"

"Because there's a Facebook page that says that girls are lying when they say they're fine." I have amazing logic, I know.

"Iggy, how the hell do you have a Facebook page? You're blind."

"I don't! Nudge was telling us all the pages she 'liked' on there one day."

"Yeah, _sure_."

"Don't try to change the subject. Tell me honestly: Are you all right?" She sighed.

"Honestly? I'm never totally all right. But really, who is?"

"Do you want to…talk about it?"

"Not really, no."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Really, this isn't really the right time or place for that. Maybe, once this is all resolved, we can sit down and have a heart-to-heart while knitting matching pink sweaters and sipping hot cocoa, but not now." I smiled faintly despite everything. It was just like Dory to somehow incorporate sarcastic, subtle humor into such a serious conversation.

"Pink?" I inquired, playing along.

"Of course. Your favorite color." I rolled my eyes, sliding my arm off of her waist to interlock our fingers.

"You know me too well," I murmured, and she chuckled softly. I didn't want to leave it at that, but I didn't want to pester her either, so I let it go.

"We're almost there!" Nudge shouted. "There's this railroad that we cross, and then a road, and then we're in pretty much in town. There's, like, a Denny's and a Rite-Aid and library and everything right when you walk in! I bet there's a hospital there too so everyone can get checked up and that lady can get her meds and the little baby can get all cared for! I saw this thing on the Health channel once about how they have to do all this stuff to newborns? Like, they have to put silver nitrosomething in their eyes so that their not blind from like STDs and stuff, and they have to do this test and…"

I try to listen to Nudge, I really do, but there comes a point when everything she says just sort of blurs. In fact, I think she was still babbling on about babies when Dory muttered, "The train-tracks are about five yards ahead."

I nodded, timing it to the best of my ability, yet still managed to stumble over the tracks.

"Smooth," Dory commented. I regained my balance and continued on, the sounds of car engines becoming apparent.

I couldn't help it; in spite of everything that was going on, I smiled the biggest, dorkiest smile I could muster. I mean, I'd been trying to get here for the last few days, and nothing seemed to be working right. Finally, something was going my way.

Soon enough, there were voices everywhere. Usually, I hated cities, or even villages like this, but right now I could care less. It seemed that lately, I had a bit more to worry about.

"Iggy," Jeb called, and I followed the sound of his voice. "The helicopter is parked in a field on the outskirts. I think your group can take care of themselves from here." I heard the half of my group who'd been on the helicopter reuniting with their family.

"Yeah," I said with a nod. I turned around, and two frail, leathery hands gripped one of mine.

"Thank you so much," Lauretta said in a weak voice. "For everything you've done." I smiled faintly.

"It was nothing."

"No, really. You stood up for us even when others wanted to leave us on our own. I can't thank you enough." My heart swelled at her sincerity.

"You're welcome. I'm just glad we got back in time."

"Oh, we did, dear. I can be strong when I want to be." I grinned, honestly proud that she'd made it this far. It was really something.

"I'm grateful for that," I responded, and she let go of my hand and patted my shoulder.

"You're a good kid. I truly hope everything works out for you."

"You too, Lauretta."

Everybody else came up and thanked me in their own ways, including a giant hug from Mia, and Aidan wrapping around my leg. I didn't feel totally deserving of their praise, but I accepted it with a heavy heart. Finally, it was time to let them go.

"Everybody…I'm going to miss you," I said. I'd honestly begun to like these people. "You've all been amazing through this, and if I could pick anybody to get in a plane crash and hike through the desert with, it would be all of you. I'm not really good with speeches, but I hope you all get where you need to go all right and…good luck."

After a few more minutes of goodbyes and good lucks, Dory, Nellie, Nudge, Else, Jeb, Mrs. Martinez and I began to make our way to the helicopter.

My job wasn't over. I'd gotten the survivors out okay, but that was only part one. Now I had to get Max and Fang and Ella…Something told me this part would be a hell of a lot harder.

•••

Max's POV

I don't know how long Fang and I sat in the cage, tied down to metal chairs with tough steel chords that dug into the flesh on our wrists. We were in a big cage, across from several small ones, and I was at least glad that at least we wouldn't have to hunch into one of those like the good ol' days.

The cell we were in was big, and had furniture like a bed, and a desk, and a couch. Of course, we couldn't even take advantage of those, since we were strapped down as tight as can be. The chairs we were in we bolted to the ground, facing each other but far enough apart that we couldn't reach one and other. Our hands were bound to our sides, and our legs were bound to the chairs. The only thing not strapped down was our heads, although a thick strap of duct tape concealed our mouths.

Next to me, on the bed, was Ella's limp, distorted figure.

_I've failed you, Ella_, I thought mournfully. In fact, I'd failed everybody. The Flock, the Pack, the whole lot of 'em.

In a perfect world, I'd somehow weasel my way out of this chair, get Fang free, and get out of here. But in a perfect world, none of this would have happened anyway. So suffice to say, this isn't a perfect world. I relaxed my muscles, a heavy wave of despair washing over me. Taking control.

I don't think I'd ever given up before this.

I stared at Fang, who'd dosed off a little bit ago. His head was drooped down, his chest barely moving. I guess the night's events had finally caught up to him. He incoherently groaned in his sleep, the sound muffled by the duct tape.

I glanced up at Ella, no longer caring how much it hurt me. I was giving up anyway, might as well do it thoroughly. Maybe we'd be able to get her back to Mom and wash her up, give her a proper funeral. I found at least a little bit of solace in that thought.

Just as I was about to turn away, a small movement caught my eye.

Dead things don't move.

It was very slight, so slight that it made sense that I wouldn't have seen it before. I might have been subconsciously making it up, but I sure hope not. Because from where I was sitting, with the small amount of light we had, it seemed like Ella's chest was slowly rising and falling.

Maybe I wouldn't give up just yet.

•••

Angel and Gabriel were blind-folded and gagged with no idea where they were going. In the distance, Angel heard some voices, but she was too overwhelmed to try to make them out. Someone shoved her from behind, and she walked forward blindly, praying she wouldn't end up maimed.

Someone forced her to crouch, then shoved her forward. The cloth around her mouth was removed, but quickly replaced with thick tape. They secured the ropes around her arms, and then finally removed the blindfold.

It took her a second to adjust, but when she did, the first thing she saw was the back of Fang's head, and beyond him, Max.

Angel herself was in a small, cramped cage, and Gabriel was in another beside her. They hadn't yet removed his blindfold. Across from their cages, in a large, jail-cell-type cage were Max and Fang, bound tightly to two chairs. Above Max, on a bed, was Ella, but she didn't look very good. Angel's heart broke just looking at the scene.

She wondered if the outcome had been her fault. She and Gabriel had been arrogant, when they really had no right to be. Take away their mind powers, and they were nothing. They were…this.

Angel's head hurt, aching in regret and silence. The helmet wasn't particularly heavy, but it gave Angel the impression that the world was on her shoulders.

A splitting noise drew her attention, and she saw Gabriel thrashing around in his cage. He threw his connected hands relentlessly at the bars of the cage, and Angel saw them beginning to bleed. He banged his helmet against the steel walls, as if either was bound to break at some point.

Angel tried to call out to him, convince him that it was no use, but all that came out was a muted gurgling sound. She wondered why he was being so volatile. She was angry and heartbroken too but she had enough sense of mind to know that what he was doing was insane.

A dreary, tired looking Fang twisted around to see Gabriel freaking out and Angel desperately waiting. He glanced at her expectantly, like wondering why she wasn't communicating with him mentally. She jerked a shoulder up at the helmet, and he nodded ever so slightly.

Max already understood, and stared directly at Angel with eyes darker than they'd ever been. Her eyes flickered to Gabriel, and then back to Angel. Something like relief came across, but it came with a series of undecipherable emotions.

Angel wasn't a girl of many regrets. But right then, she knew that there was one word she desperately wanted to convey, to everybody.

_Sorry_.


	33. Chapter 33

CHAPTER 33

**AN: Okay, decent sized chapter for all y'all. I hope everybody had a good holiday, whatever you celebrate. Have a happy new year everyone!**

Iggy's POV

The helicopter was completely jam-packed. My heart beat rapidly, not liking any bit of this arrangement. Two of my biggest fears were deafening noises and tight spaces, and the chopper was both.

Even so, when Nudge spotted AJ and her group, I convinced Jeb to let us pick them up. I couldn't just leave them wandering, and we needed all the help we could get.

With Dory, Nudge, Gazzy and Nellie all squeezed into my seat, it wasn't easy to talk, but I still managed to fill the new additions to our group in on what was going on. Dory helped, supplying minimal information about her dad to Gazzy. I assumed that Fuzz, AJ and Damian already knew everything else.

"So you didn't find Angel and Gabriel?" I wheezed after some time, the volume of my voice coming at its own will. Luckily, there were extra headsets on board, so we could all communicate without shouting. I doubted I was even capable of shouting. Having four people practically sitting on my lungs, and being enclosed in a tiny death trap of horror, might have been responsible for that.

"No," AJ replied gloomily. Her voice was also hoarse, as she was at the bottom of the other mutant pile next to mine. "We can look for them when there aren't lives on the line; I'm sure they're getting along okay."

I tried to nod, but somebody's elbow was pressed against the back of my neck, so I just muttered an, "Okay."

There was a blast of static in my head piece, and a piercing whine, before Jeb's gruff and disgruntled voice came on.

"We're landing soon. The lab is in the woods, so we're landing in a plain just outside. It'll take about a half hour to walk there. Make sure your seatbelts are on."

The seatbelts were sort of useless, if not extraneous. We were packed into the copter like sardines; it could be doing flips and we wouldn't budge.

The chopper tilted to the left, and the seatbelt jabbed into my hip, fighting against our combined wait. I was surprised it even fit around all five of us, and wondered how it managed to stay put. It must be a pretty hardcore seatbelt.

My head was spinning as the helicopter tilted once more, and I had to repress a nagging sensation of nausea. That was just what we needed, the potent smell of my half-digested McDonald's to sit in the stagnant air of the helicopter. Ew.

That thought made it even worse, and I waited anxiously for us to land. I was determined to hold my lunch back at least until I was out of the copter. What a goal; I'm setting such high standards for myself lately.

At last, there was a shudder as the helicopter touched down. I wondered if it was specially designed to land wherever it had to. Jeb probably had those sorts of resources.

As soon as everything stopped moving, I poked my arm out of pile of people on my lap, found the door latch, and yanked it toward me. Once we'd all spilled out of the copter, it took me only several seconds to hobble away from everybody else and vomit my guts out.

I thought you'd like that mental image.

Once I was done, I stood up, dusted off, and headed back the way I came, as smooth as I could manage. Puke? Me? Nah.

"You okay?" Dory asked.

"Super!" I answered with pseudo cheeriness. "And yourself?"

"Just lovely." She didn't even try to mask the acidic, hateful tone in her voice.

I heard Jeb clearing a path, and Dory said he was using a machete. I imagined him all Indiana Jones, slicing through the forest. For a man with connections like his, it surprised me that Jeb didn't have better resources than a simply machete. Maybe he was going old-school.

We'd been walking in silence for about ten minutes when there was a tug at my arm.

"I don't think I can do this," Dory admitted so quietly I had to lean down to hear her correctly.

"It'll be okay," I assured her, but it really wasn't my promise to make.

"No," she said impatiently. "It won't be. We're going back there. I can't go back there."

"Where?"

"Where do you think? The lab. _His_ lab."

"Is it like the School?" I wondered. I knew that it was a private lab, but I had no idea of what went on there.

"Please, Iggy. This place makes the School look like paradise." I shuddered, remembering all too clearly my tormented childhood, the pure torture we'd endured. Surely nothing could be worse…but Dory seemed pretty sure of herself.

"Is that possible?"

"Of course it is. At the School, there are at least some guidelines. They don't hurt…organisms…just for the fun of it. At least there, they think they're doing something good. They hurt people, I know, but what harm is done it's supposedly done for science. Here, it's not always like that. My d—Jamison is a murderer, and he knows it very well. He enjoys killing. He doesn't even try to justify it. He can do whatever the hell he wants to and get away with it." I felt like I was going to puke again. I hadn't even thought about that.

I thought about Max and Fang. Here were two of my closest friends, at the hands of this merciless man. And Ella…who knew how long she had left? We might already be too late.

"Don't you want to see justice done to him?" I asked.

"Absolutely. If he came out here now, I would gladly kick his ass. If I was lucky, maybe he'd die. But I can't go in there. At least, not without having a total breakdown."

"All right," I said after some thought. "But I have to go. Maybe Dr. Martinez will wait outside, and you can wait with her. We'll find you a place to hide." Beside me, I felt her nod reluctantly.

"Sorry," she murmured softly.

"Don't apologize," I retorted. "I understand. It's okay."

"I knew there was a reason I love you," Dory said in a heavy voice. I cracked a smile.

"I'm sure there are plenty," I scoffed, feigning cockiness.

"Yeah, you're right. You're modesty is pretty awesome, too." I rolled my eyes, and we continued forward.

I wasn't thrilled about being separated from Dory, but it had to be done. On the plus side, I didn't have to worry about her getting hurt. That was always a good thing. I could tuck her away somewhere safe, and she didn't have to remember so clearly her nightmarish, brutal upbringing.

We explained our plan to Jeb, and he agreed without argument.

"In fact," he said, "it might be a good idea for all of the Pack to hide."

"Why?" AJ demanded. "No. I don't care if it hurts, I want to give that bastard Hell."

"I'll stay with Dory," Fuzz piped in. "I don't want to go back. Sorry AJ."

So in the end, it was decided that Dory, Fuzz and Dr. Martinez would hide, and the rest of us would go in. Dr. Martinez wanted to go, as well, but Jeb convinced her otherwise. I think it was because he wasn't sure what condition Ella was in, and knew Dr. Martinez might do something irrational if she saw her daughter hurt.

All of the sudden, we were there, or at least awfully close. I knew, because Dory's breath came in short gasps and her nails dug into the flesh on my wrists. I took the arm that she wasn't maiming and draped it around her shoulders.

"I'll take care of him," I promised, vowing to myself as well as her.

"Take care of _yourself_, Iggy. That's what I'm worried about."

"Have faith in me, Dor. I'll be okay."

"You better," she warned.

"Over here, Dory," Fuzz called, and I followed his voice. "We can hide here," he said.

"Describe it to me," I ordered. I had to be sure she was safe.

"It's one of those huge trees, with a hole at the bottom for chipmunks and stuff. Only, there are no animals, and the three of us will just barely fit," Fuzz explained. "And the hole is facing away from the lab." I thought for a moment, then nodded.

"All right. Pile in." Mrs. Martinez got in first, since she was tallest. Fuzz and Dory went in side by side in front of her.

And now for the goodbye scene, even though I wasn't going too far.

Dory stepped out of her hiding spot briefly so I could hug her. Yes, I wasn't going far at all, but I wanted to memorize every detail of her that I could. She'd be my motivation.

She had a cozy smell that reminded me of a log cabin: homey and warm. Her hair was always curly and wild, but soft at the same time. Her eyes, I recalled from my dream, were a sparkling green. She was 5'1, but tough and strong enough to make up for it.

She was witty and joking, but serious at the core. She laughed at my dorky jokes, and didn't care if I was broken. Because she was too, in a different way, and I loved her all the same.

She was mine, and I was hers. And now, I was going to go kick her dad's ass.

If you're strongly opposed to mushy gushy love scenes, scroll past the next few lines.

"Don't let him hurt you," she said quietly. Her voice was a mixture of contempt and…was that fear?

"I won't. I promise."

"I'm holding you to that. I love you."

"I love you too." The kiss—because it's inevitable at a time like this—was brief, but it seemed appropriate.

"Right here…" Fuzz butt in. I think he was talking to Dory, but her back was to him. I pretended not to hear.

"I'll be back pretty soon," I said.

"All right. Bye." I made my way back to the rest of the bunch.

I'd like to tell you that I was totally fine. That I was absolutely ready for this. That my stomach wasn't practically at my knees, that I wasn't sweating buckets in anticipation. But why lie? I was totally freaking out like a little girl, but you didn't hear it from me.

"Iggy," AJ said, and I turned my head in her direction. "Should we try to sneak up, or come in full-fledged like a SWAT team?" My ego went up a bit when I noticed that she was addressing me like a co-leader, like Max.

Yeah, that's right. Iggy the Boss-Man. It has a nice ring to it.

"I don't know. What's it like in there?"

"From my memory, it's all open when you first walk in, with computers and crap lining the walls." I thought about it a bit.

If it was wide open and we tried to creep in, we were screwed. If it was a cluttered mess and we tried to barge in, we were equally screwed. Sneaking in gave us time to get our bearings, but if we were seen it was a waste. If we came in on full-attack mode, we'd take them by surprise and have that advantage. So it was all a matter of the surroundings.

"What does Damian say?" I asked.

"SWAT team attack," Damian answered gruffly. "We can't take any chances." I nodded.

"That's what I was thinking," I said.

"Sounds like a plan, then," AJ concluded.

"Let's do this Spartan-style," I agreed. It's true that I've never stayed long in a history class, but it's also true that I listen to _300_ every time it's on HBO. And, I'd pause it and make whoever was next to me describe the scene to me every once and a while.

So we had Gazzy, Nudge, Else, Nellie, AJ, Damian, Jeb and I. No shields, no spears, no cool hats. No AK-47s, no Glocks, not even a measly little explosive (yeah. I know. No explosives…I've seriously got to get my act together). But seven out of eight of us had superhuman powers, so I guess we can't complain. Oh yeah, and Jeb had that machete, but I doubt he was badass enough to use it.

We arranged ourselves like this: AJ and Damian stood front and center, since they knew the place best, and Gazzy and I flanked them on either side. In a row tightly behind us was Nudge, Else, Jeb and Nellie, in that order. It was close enough to a phalanx.

I followed the heard to where the building must have been.

"We're charging on three," AJ announced. "Iggy, just run straight forward. Everybody, try to keep formation at least at the start. Okay. One…two…"

"This. Is. SPARTA!" Gazzy bellowed in a voice that sounded exactly like the movie.

"Three!"

With that, we sprinted forward with no idea what lay ahead. But sometimes, that's what you have to do. Brace yourself and press on. Go big or go home. And that's exactly what we did.

**AN: Okay, this is where it gets intense. Good news for action fans out there!**


	34. Chapter 34

CHAPTER 34

**AN: Anyone else think of Iggy when you see Warren/Angel in **_**X-Men: The Last Stand**_**? I've seen that movie a million times, and it just occurred to me now. Weird how Maximum Ride can infiltrate your brain. I mean, I mentioned the whitecoats in my English essay….Anyway, here's 34:  
**

Dory couldn't believe herself. Waves of self-loathing shot through her body, and she was paralyzed in fear.

She was leaving Iggy to _him_. She figured out not too long ago that the guys from the airport, from the date, from the plane…they had to be a creation of her 'father'. The small brick building from her nightmare could be swarming with them. It probably was.

Dory poked her head out from the hiding spot to see everybody standing by the entrance. The double doors they stood in front of were the only thing that distinguished it as a building, rather than a brick wall.

She shuddered, wondering how a building so small and simple could contain such horrible secrets and treacherous memories. It was like a brick box with doors. From the front, it looked tiny, but she knew that it extended far back into the woods. A long, thin rectangle.

He kept the cages in the back.

Dory shuddered again as the small congregation prepared themselves. She was a second away from screaming at them, but it wouldn't do anything and she knew it. They weren't as cowardly and apprehensive as she was. They had guts.

Unable to look any longer, she tore her eyes away from the scene and focused her gaze on Fuzz. She knew he'd have a trick up his sleeve: one of them always did.

"You got anything?" She asked, unsure how her voice would come out. Probably shaky and unsure, but whatever. Fuzz knew why.

He nodded eagerly, and began pulling out various materials from the pocket of his hoodie. He had wires, metal, and what looked like gunpowder.

"Where'd you get all that?" Dory gasped, considerably impressed. He shrugged sheepishly.

_Some from home, some leftover from the bomb me an' Gazzy made, and some from the helicopter_, he explained proudly.

"You didn't take anything too important from the copter, did you?"

_Nope. Just, like, excess metal and stuff_. Dory grinned despite her emotions. She had a hunch that they'd be feeling all sorts of drafts on the way home.

If they ever got home.

She shook the thought away, disgusted with herself. AJ always told her not to be pessimistic, but not to be too optimistic. "There's a healthy medium," she'd always say. "It's called reality."

Well, screw the healthy medium, Dory thought bitterly. She knew what they were up against. She knew that they might very well be doomed. And _that_ was the reality at hand.

Desperately, she and Fuzz began to assemble a simple bomb. It wouldn't really do much, except maybe create a diversion. If they felt they were needed, they'd detonate it.

That Dr. Martinez lady was probably asking questions, seeing as Fuzz kept looking up, but Dory didn't feel like trying to read her lips. She was much too concentrated.

Curious, she dared herself to glance at the building again. Her stomach dropped as she connected two wires. They'd gone in.

•••

Iggy's POV

You'd think that Dory's old man could have been a little more creative. However, when we burst in, it went exactly as we expected. We went charging into a wall of rock solid Brutes, big deal. I mean, could he be any _more_ of a stereotypical mad scientist?

Anyway.

Something new came over me as we burst through those doors. At first I thought it was just adrenaline, but there was something else. It took me a little while to realize that it was hate. Pure, volatile, bottomless hate. I was suddenly struck with how much I freaking hated this man. It had just come to me that everything that had happened since I met Dory was his doing. He was the Voice, the Brutes were his, and everything was his fault.

That being said, let's go over what he's done to me lately, shall we?

First there was the whole deal of one of his Brutes hitting on my girl, which I still haven't quite figured out (was it really necessary?). Then they broke my wing, and let me tell you, that's not a pleasant experience.

That takes us up to his worst offence yet: interrupting my _very first_ date. It's hard enough to find someone willing to go out with you when you've got, achem, _wings_, much less someone to love you. I'd finally found that, after fifteen years of considering monksmanship (if that's even a word), and he had to come and ruin our first date. Ask the next guy you see how his first date went; I bet you twenty bucks he won't say, 'Oh, we had dinner at this Mexican place, but then my date's satanic father sent out a bunch of superhuman-dudes who chased me through Manhattan and out a hotel window with a broken wing, thus causing me to come within inches of certain death.' Good Lord!

And then there was the big plane ordeal. Risking innocent lives, even the lives of 'his' Pack, in hopes of killing me. Here was a man who knew what he wanted, and had not a care in the world for anyone else's well being, so long as he was appeased. I thought of Aidan, the sound of his mother's scream, the torturous pain from swooping down to save him. The crushing despair I'd felt when I thought I'd lost him, the overwhelming jubilance in realizing I hadn't. One man was behind all this chaos and pain. If any of those passengers had died, I would have never forgiven myself.

Then I remembered that none of the plane's staff had been saved. Not the sunny stewardesses, the pilot…none of them. This guy considered them dispensable, just like he had with me.

He had Max and Fang and Ella, too. God only knew what he could be doing to them, and it made me sick to my stomach.

Finally, if all of that isn't enough to make you hate someone, there were all the things he'd done to Dory. Her mother, her friend, her whole childhood: destroyed. Her whole life, I knew, would be tainted by what one man had done, one man who shared her blood.

But Dory will never be anything like her father, and I will never be dispensable. These are among the lessons that I hope Jamison Batchelder learns before he dies—however soon that may be.

Everything aforementioned was running through my head as we charged the Brutes. The hate that overtook me gave me a new strength, and suddenly I had no control.

And, you know, maybe that was a good thing.

The Brutes had size and strength on us, but there was no way they'd ever have the heart that we all had. Loath was on our side, for once; especially mine.

I drew my arm back and forced it forward, not even taking the time to grin at the sound that came from the Brute at the impact. Thick, gooey stuff ran down my hands, but it was blue. The only thing I could think of was that maybe they bled blue blood (now there's a tongue twister for you).

I went into Tasmanian Devil mode, practically a twister of flailing body parts. Once I'd determined that none of my allies were close by, I snapped out my wings a little bit in hopes of doing more damage.

The pointy part of my wing (no need to be technical here) suddenly stopped moving. Ah shit, I thought, assuming that the Brute had taken a hold of it. Here we go again.

But then I realized that the Brute wasn't moving, either. The only sounds coming from him were quick, gasping grunts.

Coming to the conclusion that I'd stabbed him with my wing brought a considerable amount of pleasure. I'm not a bad guy, and yet all I could think was that I wanted to do it again. Corrupted? Yep. Bloodthirsty? Yep. But these guys were spawns of my worst enemy so….bring it.

"Cover me!" I yelled to nobody in particular.

"On it!" AJ responded as I began to work my wing out of the Brute's torso. The blue slimy stuff was dripping down my hands, and I liked to pretend it was just, like, juice or something. Blue juice. Yum.

My wing came free, just in time for me to block a heavy blow to my face. I grabbed his fist and pushed it back at him, but it didn't really do much. I knew how to use my secret weapons now, though.

The trick was to not let in on it, though. If these goons caught on that I was using my wings as knives, they'd try to break them. You probably know by now how much I hate having a broken wing.

I made an awkward, gagging sound as one punched me square in the gut. Gritting my teeth, I swung my wing forward again. It sank right in. I wondered vaguely why my wings weren't cracking against what I remembered to be a solid exterior, but it worked so I wasn't complaining.

"Iggy!" Gazzy shouted. I spun around, expecting someone to be right behind me, but no one was there.

"What?" I demanded, waiting.

"You're wing's shiny!" My brow furrowed, and my hand instinctively flung to my wing. If Gazzy was calling me mid-fight, it had to be good.

And it was, let me tell you.

My wing had healed, all right…but now it was covered in metallic silver feathers. And underneath? Solid metal.

All right, who messed with my genetics overnight?

Whatever, I could live with this.

"Sick!" I exclaimed, spinning around to stab another Brute with my, yes, steel wing. I was having a hay day! It didn't look like I'd have to worry about having a broken wing anymore.

"Stop," I deep voice commanded. Something about the voice didn't seem so Brute-like, though, and it came from a distance.

But then something really weird happened. The Brute I was fighting just halted, and I hadn't stabbed him yet.

"Back away," the voice continued. There was a low shuffling sound as the Brutes moved away.

"Now dance," I interjected seriously. Even with my new steel wing, it didn't work. Bummer.

"Iggy, I'm considering sparing you. I would close your mouth, unless you want me to change my mind." I grit my teeth, overcome with a whole new wave of hate as I realized who the voice was. I think you know who.

And what right did he have to talk to me like that? We were winning this battle! Plus, I had a metal wing. How can you be condescending to a guy with a metal wing?

"Now, all of you can follow me to my office nicely, or my men can—"

"Your men can't do jack shit," I interrupted. I was rewarded with a swift slap across the face. When had that Brute gotten there? Hadn't they _just_ backed away? Blood welled up on the inside of my cheek, and the outside burned. I didn't react, though. I wasn't going to give him that pleasure.

"Jeb," Jamison said sternly. "I thought you'd be better than this."

"I have nothing to say to you," Jeb responded curtly. No, it was more than curt. There was a loathing edge in his voice that I'd never heard before.

"Ah, Brother's got his panties in a bunch again."

"You're a very disturbing person, Jamison. The fact that you can stand here, after all you've done, and still manage to call me your brother just proves that you're not only deranged, but delusional too." I heard a door open. A heavy rumbling sound. Reinforcements had arrived.

"Seems as though you've chosen the latter option," Jamison murmured. "Pity." I was suddenly surrounded by a whole _shitload_ of Brutes.

"Hey, I have a steel wing," I hissed.

"That's titanium, Iggy," Gazzy corrected. "Steel would be too heavy."

"Ah, thanks Gaz. That sounds cooler, anyway." I stuck my _titanium_ wing into the stomach of a Brute, but I was way out numbered. About seven of them were dragging me away, but I hardly noticed, because I was preoccupied all over again with a single thought:

Airports were going to be _Hell_.


	35. Chapter 35

CHAPTER 35

**AN: Hey everyone. This fanfiction is, incredibly, almost over! And I'm serious this time. 2 or 3 more chapters, max. (Hah, get it? Max?) Well, enjoy this chapter!**

Soon, everybody was cramped into Jamison's office. He sat in front of the machines that controlled his Voices and clasped his hands together. He rarely got company, and even if this company wanted him dead—though would probably end _up_ dead eventually—and was being contained against their will, it was company nonetheless.

He'd been hoping to see his daughter today. Most of the rest of the Pack was there, but Dory and Fuzz had opted to hide outside. Maybe that was for the better, though. She already hated him a whole lot, and killing off her friends wouldn't help.

Jamison gazed at the group in front of him. The remainder of the Flock that was not locked up in the back was there. His incredibly stupid brother was there, and so were AJ, Nellie, and Damian. Some female he didn't recognize was there, too. He wondered if she would be useful, but decided that she would probably not be. She looked like an ordinary girl, and Jamison didn't like ordinary. She would be killed, too.

And then there was that horrid _Iggy_ character that Dory was so fond of. The arrogant little brat thought he was so cool. Jamison so wished he could kill the worthless blind birdkid—it would be quite fun, too. He could use that stupid metal wing.

But there was something most people didn't know about Jamison. Something he didn't _want_ people to know. Somewhere, _deeeeeep_ down—past the satanic thoughts, the pleasure of killing, the strive to be the smartest, the most innovative, the overall _best_—there was a heart in there. It was buried, and mostly asphyxiated with morbid ponderings, but the one thing it wanted was acceptance from his only child.

So, as much as it killed him, he was going to give the rancid _Iggy_ a choice: the Flock, or Dory. Of course, he wouldn't know that choosing the Flock meant almost certain death, and choosing Jamison's beloved daughter was his opportunity at life. That was the fun of it—on the off chance that Jamison gave someone a choice, he would make it the hardest, most unbearable choice he could come up with.

He did, in fact, hate Iggy. Even so, though, Dory was his only soft spot. If he spared her boyfriend, maybe she would love him again. Maybe she would be able to look at him without immense disgust and loath.

With that said, Jamison hoped, though just barely, that Iggy would choose his daughter.

•••

Iggy's POV

The Brutes were clamped to me like freaking vices. There were five of them: one holding each limb, and one holding my wings. I can't describe how incredibly awkward it is to have huge, burly men hugging your legs like an infant hugs their mother's.

"A bit cozy here," I muttered, feeling claustrophobic and exposed at the same time.

"I'd like to explain why we're all gathered here," Jamison announced. I held back my vomit with great difficulty. Just his voice made me cringe, made my skin peel.

"You probably know by now that I have Max and Fang. And Max's human pet, too."

"It's her sister," Gazzy hissed. "And her name is _Ella_."

"Speaking of sisters," Jamison went on. "I have yours too. And Gabriel."

"No!" AJ grunted. "You're bluffing. They're too powerful—"

"It's all about deception, Alden-Jane. _That_ is how you succeed. You should have learned this by now."

"Sorry we're not all slimy, lying, power-hungry, evil, twisted bastards like yourself."

"I do what I need to," Jamison said calmly. "You're a decent leader, but I am far superior. I know what needs to be done. But I'm not here to talk about me, of course.

"I just want to start by saying that the four mutants in my possession will be useful to me. You obviously didn't care enough about young Gabriel to look after him—"

"Are you kidding? We scoured the—"

"Ah, ah. Seen not heard, AJ. As I was saying, those are definite keepers. My daughter is first priority, though, so the Pack is forbidden from being associated with those in harm's way—the Flock." I felt blood began to drip out of my palms as my clenched fists broke through the skin. My temperature rose with every word uttered.

"But I see she's taken a liking to you, Iggy. So I'm going to give you a simple choice—the Flock, or the Pack?" I'd seen this coming already. I knew exactly what to say; my choice had been made.

"Both."

"You know you can't have both. It's the Flock, or Dory. You must choose one."

"And if I don't?"

"We will slowly break every bone in your body—including wings—until you have reached a decision." My stomach dropped—the Jamison in my mind was much more negotiable.

"How about a joint custody?" I offered half heartedly.

"I'm not going to joke with you. Make a decision. Now."

"Ignore him Iggy," AJ said. "The Pack and the Flock won't be separated anyway. He can't—_Ah!_" Her voice shot up several octaves, accompanied by a jarringly loud _snap_. My heart thudded. This guy meant business, and there was no telling what he was capable of.

My back was against the wall. My hands—and my legs and wings, for that matter—were tied. I was at the end of the metal beam, looking over. I had too—

Before I could make up my mind, the world exploded.

"Get away from my Flock," came Max's voice over the blast of the explosion, lined with chilling hatred.

•••

Dory was going to be very hungry, very soon. She couldn't help it, though—she just couldn't stop throwing up.

After everybody had gone into the horrid lab, she couldn't stand herself anymore. She couldn't look at her own hands without feeling contempt. She had to do something, something more than just tossing a bomb aimlessly into the building.

After about ten to fifteen minutes, she'd mustered the guts to go in. She and Fuzz crept into the building, and realized with wonder that it was completely empty. Batchelder's office door was shut, and Fuzz notified her that he could hear voices inside.

She wouldn't be able to describe the pain of running past the cages. Tears had begun to spill over long before they reached the very back, the very worst part—the cage that used to house her mother.

It looked the same. The same bed, and desk, and carpet—a tricked-out, fancy-shmancy jail cell. The home of Dory's worst memories…and nightmares.

Inside were Max and Fang, bound to chairs. In the crates across from them were Angel and Gabriel, whimpering, with some sort of contraption on their head to cancel out their mind powers.

Fuzz had run back to find the key, and came back lucky. They unlocked all three cages, removed the headgear, and untied Max and Fang, though not without difficulty. Max was devastated about her sister, who lay in a hideous heap on the bed, but there was no time to save her. They could come back later.

The six sprinted down the corridors, back to the office. Each wore savage expressions, crazed with hate, as Fuzz set a three-minute timer on the makeshift bomb.

That's when all of Dory's tears and contempt and reminiscence caught up with her, and she couldn't contain the vomit any longer. She was still heaving when the bomb went off, but managed to collect herself just after. She was weak with hunger and depression and crushing memories, but still ready to fight with everything she had.

She would never be able to get Jamison back for what he'd done to her. But she was going to try.

•••

Max's POV

To say I was utterly pissed and hungry for blood would be the understatement of, like, forever. _Nobody_ makes me feel as helpless and despairing as this man did and get away with it.

Several of the Brutes had been knocked out by the explosion, and my Flock was working aggressively to free themselves. I swear, I've never seen so many Brutes packed into such a small area. That office was like a sardine can—with, you know, state of the art equipment inside.

Most of the wall had been blown away, so hopping in was easy. I helped pry one of the big dumb apes off of Nudge, and kicked him in the nuts with everything I had. Something must have happened to Iggy's wing, because he was stabbing it into every Brute that approached him like it was a medieval sword.

"Apprehend them!" Uncle shouted. I snorted. He wasn't in control anymore.

The Brutes, as many as there were, were almost all knocked out or dead. I walked toward Uncle.

_Max, don't do this_. I reached out quickly, without thinking, and slammed my hands on either side of his head, ignored the burst of static in my brain. I noticed a wire poking out of his right ear, and yanked it out immediately.

"Goodbye, Voice," I said, smiling as I stomped on the earpiece. Jamison tried to run, but shot a hand out and seized him quickly.

"Not so tough without the technology, huh?" I asked, tossing him over my shoulder. "Iggy," I called, and he glanced in my direction. "Grab Dory and meet me directly overhead." He nodded, and I shot though the ceiling with my latest arch-enemy draped over my shoulder.

I thought I'd try a little Dr. Phil here before I kicked his sorry ass.

**AN: By the way, I just finished Angel, and holy shnikies, was it amazing. For those of you who read it, feel free to PM me with your thoughts. And those of you who haven't, go buy/rent/borrow/take-out/steal/acquire it somehow NOW. (Okay, maybe I shouldn't encourage stealing, but you get the picture.) **


	36. Chapter 36

CHAPTER 36

**AN: Here it is, boys and girls. The big finale—although it's really quite short. Just one more chapter after this: the epilogue. I'll save the closing speech for then. Enjoy 36!**

Iggy's POV

I didn't have to see to know that this was all over, and that Dory had done it. Even with all the horrors of her childhood hanging over her head, even with all the hate she held toward her father, even when just looking at the place made her want to dissipate, she somehow managed to come in and free Max, Fang, Angel and Gabriel, and bomb the lab, saving the day.

You can't help but envy a girl like that.

"Iggy!" I heard her cry just after Max took off.

"Dory!" I stumbled toward her voice over the wreckage, and we collided in an awkward embrace.

"Dude, what is _up_ with your wing?" She said in a weak voice. I grinned.

"Ah, you know, it's just titanium. No big deal." She laughed softly.

"No big deal," she repeated skeptically. I nodded.

"Now, I hate to break the mood, but…we have to…"

"I know," Dory mumbled. "Take me up."

I scooped her into my arms, hunched over to protect her from debris, and burst through the ceiling.

"Over here," Max called, right above me. I angled myself vertically and shot up, keeping a tight hold on my girlfriend.

"Fedora," Jamison crooned, his voice thick and droopy.

"I hate you," she snapped back, suddenly strong. My heart squeezed; she was just so tough.

"I was going to spare him, though," he argued. My blood boiled. "I gave him a _choice_."

"Yeah, well you didn't give my mother a choice. You didn't give Lupe a choice. And, you know, all through my childhood, you didn't even give _me_ a choice."

"Dory, you must know that sacrifices must be made—for science."

"Sacrifices? Is that what you call it these days? Is that how you justify it? Listen, Batchelder—you kill for pleasure. You killed my mom and my best friend not for science, but because you're an insane, twisted psychopath. There is no sacrifice involved in the process. You're just. Plain. Evil."

"But, I _love_ you." Dory was quiet for a minute, and I tightened my on her, letting her know I was there for her. The only sound I could hear was my and Max's wings, flapping in accord. We were high enough up that you couldn't hear the birds, or the chaos below. It was just the four of us, quiet as you please.

"That's no excuse," she finally said. Her voice came out strangled, like one of those Brutes was sitting on her chest. I couldn't imagine how hard this must be for her. "Max, drop him."

"You sure?"

"No! Don't!" Jamison cried. "Things need to be done still! This can't—"

"I'm sure."

And like that, he was gone.

Dory twisted around so that her head was against my chest. She shivered and trembled, clinging to me so tightly I was sure I'd have bruises on my back. Jamison's inhuman screams got quieter and quieter until I could no longer hear them.

I had to be thankful, momentarily, for Dory being deaf.

"I'll go clean up," Max whispered, careful not to mention Jamison. She would probably go find the body, but I'm not sure what would come next. A funeral? Who would come?

I nodded, and Max took off.

I held Dory close to me, taking in again how tiny she was. Small, but not delicate. She was strong, tough, brave. She was everything. She was mine.

We could have stayed up there, bobbing softly in the sky, forever. In fact, we probably did. Just Dory and me, alone in the clouds, together. Day would fade to night, and eventually my wings would be too sore to hold us any longer. But for now, we could just sit in comfortable silence, in a tight embrace, until nothing else mattered anymore.

**AN: Sorry that it's really short, it just seemed like the right place to end. I'm going to try to have the epilogue up by tomorrow—my birthday! I feel like it would be good timing (: **


	37. EPILOGUEFINAL CHAPTER!

EPILOGUE

**AN: Here it is! THE FINAL CHAPTER! AHHH! Finishing this is my own little birthday present to myself. I'll meet you at the bottom!**

Max's POV

"And your name is?"

"Belle"

"All right, Belle. What can you do?"

"I can yell, really loud," answered the four foot kid in front of me. She was probably eleven years old, but incredibly small.

See, as hard as this is to believe, life went on. Just because all of the drama with Jamison was over didn't mean that all of our problems were solved. Unfortunately, the world still needed to be saved.

So here we were, continuing Fang's mutant search. I figure, if we're going to save the world, we're going to need numbers to do it. Keeping us all together would be hard, and maybe we'd have to break into smaller groups at times, but it was do-able. We'd done it before.

We were in my Mom's back yard, now, holding the…er…auditions. Belle was our first recruit.

"Want to demonstrate?" I asked. She glanced around nervously, and I smiled encouragingly.

She screamed. The weird thing was that it didn't make a sound at all. But within seconds, everybody fainted. Even Dory. Even me.

I woke up about a minute later to singing. Belle was singing a wordless melody, all in 'ahh's, and it reminded me vaguely of the _Little Mermaid_. The ability to knock out and revive people on command? That was chill.

"You're in," I said once my head-ache had cleared.

Speaking of head-aches, there had been nobody in my head except for me lately. Even with Jamison dead, there was the possibility that someone could take his machine, but it hadn't happened. Yet.

"What was _that_?" A voice wondered. I looked toward the house, and smiled.

Ella Martinez came rolling down the back porch ramp.

Yep, she'd survived, all though just barely. My sister was now paralyzed from the waist down. Her spinal cord had snapped near the bottom. One of the vertebrae on her neck was cracked, which left her with a neck brace for some time, but she could still use her arms, once they were recovered from being broken in two spots each. She had a concussion and a shattered collar bone…but she was alive.

It had been three weeks since the whole lab fiasco, and Ella had been released from the hospital yesterday. She still had to attend physical therapy every other day, and take two separate pills twice a day. The doctor said it would get better with time, though. Once her broken bones were healed, the PT could be more beneficial, and there was a possibility of her walking again one day. I mean, those scientists can graft DNA, and who knows what else. Repairing a broken back should be child's play by now.

"Our latest recruit," Iggy answered Ella. "Ella, meet Belle." Iggy was lounging in the grass, his arm around the Dory's waist.

Dory had been shaken up since I killed Jamison, but she'd been slowly returning to her old self. I could see where she was coming from, though. She hated Jamison, seriously hated. She wished he wasn't her father, and there was no forgiving the evils he'd done to her. However, wanting someone dead and actually having them dead are two totally different things.

The Voice told me once that I couldn't kill someone, that I wasn't capable of it. I have a feeling it was Jeb that time, since I had just heard him be the Voice at that castle in Germany, but still. Up until three weeks ago, I had believed that was true. And you know, even today I feel this ugly, rotten guilt deep in my stomach every time every so often. I wasn't a killer then, I'm still not, and I never will be. Heck, I'm not even a vigilante. I'm a leader, and sometimes, I have to do what I have to do, like it or not.

So, Dory and I were both coping. Overall, though, it was the right choice to make. That's what was getting us through. Dory and I were a lot closer after all of this, too. I guess there's an unspoken bond between two mutants who play a hand in killing a malicious enemy.

Plus, we were cousins. It's funny to think that after all this, we really were blood related. She called Mom _Aunt Val_ now, which I found pretty cute. It seems like my family was broadening around every corner. True, it was more people to look after, but I had a feeling that Dory and the Pack were pretty good at looking after themselves.

When we first met the Pack, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. I decided to let them in mainly based on Iggy's premonition. Then, we stuck with them out of sheer curiosity, even amazement. They were supposedly our alter-egos, after all.

But as I got to know them, I stopped seeing them as our doubles. Nellie was just Nellie, not the Other Nudge. They were similar to us in more than one way, but they were incredibly unique. AJ was more like a sister than a clone.

And so here we were. The Flock and the Pack, mostly intact at this point. My mom was okay, and my sister was going to be. Iggy and Dory were together, along with AJ and Damian, and me and Fang. Things were going to be different, that was for sure. No more Voice, or evil uncle, or insane Brutes.

Whatever came next, we could handle. We were all alive and together, and growing in numbers. We were a force to be reckoned with. We were content.

Now all we had to do was save the world—no small feat.

Bring it on.

**AN: All right. Final Author's Note. You ready?**

**First off, I just want to sincerely thank everybody who has reviewed, favorited, or alerted this story, EVER. You guys will never know how amazing I feel every time I get an email from Fanfiction. I never asked for reviews, or put up an ultimatum (i.e. If I don't get 203 reviews by tomorrow morning, I'm discontinuing!) because I don't want to force you to do something you don't want to do. When it boils down to it, I write simply for the sake of writing. But those reviews, they make me sooooooo happy. I can't help but smile at every single one. My motto at the start of this was, if one person reads this, I've done my job. I'm overjoyed with the responses I ended up getting. **

**Next, I'd like to shamelessly self-promote for a second. If you like my writing style, or just want some more Iggy/OC action, you can check out my story, Exception. Just hop on over to my profile if you want to read it—it's going to be my primary area of focus now. Then there's my Maximum Ride/The Host crossover, Barely Human, although that one is sort of slow-going. There are also a few Max Ride one-shots up there. **

**Finally, I will include the one thing that I forgot from the beginning: **

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Maximum Ride or the characters associated, I just own The Pack and all my OCs. **

**Thanks again, and I'll miss updating this story.**

**Peace, **

**Sarah**


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